This article is part of the supplement: Selected contributions to the First European Conference on SNOMED CT
Proceedings
Ontological analysis of SNOMED CT
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* Corresponding author: Gergely Héja heja@eski.hu
1 National Institute for Strategic Health Research, Arany János utca 6-8, 1051 Budapest, Hungary
2 Eötvös Loránd University, Egyetem tér 1-3, 1053 Budapest, Hungary
BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making 2008, 8(Suppl 1):S8 doi:10.1186/1472-6947-8-S1-S8
Published: 27 October 2008Abstract
Background
SNOMED CT is the most comprehensive medical terminology. However, its use for intelligent services based on formal reasoning is questionable.
Methods
The analysis of the structure of SNOMED CT is based on the formal top-level ontology DOLCE.
Results
The analysis revealed several ontological and knowledge-engineering errors, the most important are errors in the hierarchy (mostly from an ontological point of view, but also regarding medical aspects) and the mixing of subsumption relations with other types (mostly 'part of').
Conclusion
The found errors impede formal reasoning. The paper presents a possible way to correct these problems.