Matching Residential Aged Care Terms to SNOMED CT, ICNP2Beta, and CATCH

Abstract

This paper provides a brief comparison of selected classifications and terminologies for a subset of items relevant to aged care. 70 terms and phrases of relevance to the Australian residential aged care sector, were sourced. These were matched to three terminologies and classifications by the authors using a five point rating scale. Inter-rater concordance for assigned rating was assessed for three author teams to SNOMED-CT. Results suggest that, allowing for some significant biases in the study, SNOMED CT has fair content coverage as a terminology with a 68% 'hit' rate. Three teams of two authors each concurred in their ratings in a 30% sample of terms for SNOMED CT. The terminology and classification CATCH has scored a 41% 'hit' rate for content coverage. The classification ICNP2Beta has scored a 36% 'hit' rate for content coverage. The study should be repeated with a tighter methodology, a larger term set sample from real free-text aged and community care records, and possibly a broader set of terminologies and classifications. Any conceptual gaps that have shown themselves in this introductory paper could be the focus for further study. An obvious example from this paper are Pastoral Care terms.