Several  features, which would improve the completeness and precision of classification, cannot be represented in individual .

The examples on this page are illustrative only. Practical requirements and benefits of representing property transitivity and chains have been established. However, the concept model rules for applying these have not yet been finalized. Therefore, one of the two examples below refers to two concepts that do not currently exist in SNOMED CT and in the other example, it is likely that transitivity will apply to a specific subtype of the general |part of| attribute shown in the example.

Property Characteristics

If particular characteristics of the  used to define concepts are identified, this can enhance classification. For example, knowing that an attribute like  is transitive would allow the classifier to make infer that an entire finger is part of the entire upper limb.

Property Chains

Property chains are in some ways similar to transitivity but involve more than one attribute. For example,  could be declared to chain with . In that case, suppose the definition of  includes  of , a DL classifier can determine that a tablet that  =  by definition has a modification of  as its active ingredient. Thus in the example shown the classifier can determine that  is a subtype of .