Translating and evaluating historic phenotyping algorithms using SNOMED CT

Musaab Elkheder, Arturo Gonzalez-Izquierdo, Muhammad Qummer Ul Arfeen, Valerie Kuan, R. Thomas Lumbers, Spiros C. Denaxas, Anoop D. Shah

Abstract: Patient phenotype definitions based on terminologies are required for the computational use of electronic health records. Within UK primary care research databases, such definitions have typically been represented as flat lists of Read terms, but Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine—Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT) (a widely employed international reference terminology) enables the use of relationships between concepts, which could facilitate the phenotyping process. We implemented SNOMED CT-based phenotyping approaches and investigated their performance in the CPRD Aurum primary care database.