Introduction: The information necessary to process a CT referral
is located in heterogeneous administrative, clinical and
paraclinical information systems. The purpose of this study
is to underpin the processing of referrals by reusing relevant
data across information systems. This is performed through
use of the reference terminology SNOMED CT.
Methods: The informational needs, when processing a CT
referral, were investigated through observations and mapping
methods were identified using a systematic literature
search. The observations were analyzed using thematic analysis,
and for each relevant theme, source terms were identified
to express these. Mapping of the source terms to SNOMED
CT was performed through an iterative process where
a guideline was developed, to ensure consistent execution of
the mapping. Finally, a user interface was developed to evaluate,
whether the reused data, was able to underpin processing
of referrals.
Analysis: Through analysis of the observations, nine themes
were identified, which resulted in 93 source terms. A guideline
for mapping to SNOMED CT was developed through
three iterations. 98% of the source terms could be mapped
to SNOMED CT, of which 77% were mapped as an exact
match. The evaluation showed that the reused data, was able
to underpin processing of referrals.
Conclusion: SNOMED CT is a flexible tool which can be
used to map source terms from versatile collections of terms
and can therefore be applied to reuse data across administrative,
clinical and paraclinical information systems.