Forty years of SNOMED: a literature review
Author Information
Author(s): Ronald Cornet, Nicolette de Keizer
Primary Institution: Academic Medical Centre, Universiteit van Amsterdam
Hypothesis
It is unknown to what extent SNOMED is used in clinical practice and what benefits were achieved.
Conclusion
The clinical application of SNOMED is broadening beyond pathology, but fewer studies are available on its usage in clinical practice.
Supporting Evidence
- 250 papers were included in this research.
- The number of annual publications has increased over time.
- 60% of the papers did not clearly describe a specific medical domain.
- 52% of the papers described some kind of evaluation of SNOMED.
Takeaway
This study looked at how SNOMED, a medical terminology system, has been used over 40 years, finding that while it's used in many areas, we don't know much about how it helps in real patient care.
Methodology
A Medline literature search was performed to select papers on SNOMED from 1966 to June 2006, analyzing their characteristics.
Potential Biases
Publication bias may affect the representation of studies where SNOMED plays a secondary role.
Limitations
Many papers did not specify the version of SNOMED used, and the study was based on abstracts rather than full papers.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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