Reference Set Editing

A reference set is a standard format for maintaining and distributing a set of references to SNOMED CT components.

Notes

• A reference set can be used to represent a subset of components (concepts, descriptions or relationships).

• A reference set may also associate referenced components with additional information such as:

  • Ordered lists of components

  • Sets of associations between components

  • Mapping between SNOMED CT concepts and other systems codes, classifications, or knowledge resources.

The reference set mechanism provides a standard extensible mechanism that can be used to customize SNOMED CT to meet a wide range of practical use cases. Detailed information about reference sets is provided in the SNOMED CT Reference Sets Guide and in the SNOMED CT Release File Specifications.

Services Required to Support Reference Set Creation and Editing

The table below shows a summary of the terminology services required to support reference set creation and editing.

Practical Requirement	Required Services	Dependencies
Enable the selection of SNOMED CT edition and version to be used. REQUIRED	Select Edition and Version	N/A
Get concepts or descriptions that are members of a reference set In the case of a description, this includes the human-readable term for this refset member REQUIRED	Get a Concept, Description or Relationship Get a description	N/A
Get terms for concepts to use in human-readable descriptions of: The current reference set Concepts that are members of a reference set REQUIRED	Get Terms for a Concept	N/A
Apply concept subsumption tests to identify candidate concepts for addition to or removal from a reference set. REQUIRED	Get and Test Concept Subtypes and Supertypes	N/A
Apply reference set membership criteria to identify: Current members of the reference set being edited Candidate concepts for addition to or removal from a reference set REQUIRED	Get and Test Reference Set Membership	N/A
Create and apply an expression constraint query: as an intensional definition of reference set membership; or REQUIRED	Validate and Apply Expression Constraints Get all concepts that conform to an expression constraint	N/A
Find concepts: to find the id of a named reference set to be edited to be added to or removed from a reference set; or to be included in intensional definition of a reference set REQUIRED	Find Concepts	N/A
Get reference set member data (i.e. data of reference sets that extend on the simple type reference set, e.g. data from map type reference sets, association type reference sets etc.) OPTIONAL	Get Data from a Reference Set	N/A
Update reference set member data OPTIONAL	Reference set type-specific functionality	N/A