Scrutinizing the Axiomatic Basis of SNOMED CT: How Confused is it by the Ambiguous Terminology Paradigm?

SNOMED CT, the world’s largest clinical terminology introduces itself as “a terminological resource which consists of codes representing meanings expressed as terms, with interrelationships between the codes to provide enhanced representation of the meanings.” On the one hand, concepts are linked to lexical entities (terms), including Fully Specified Names, Preferred Terms, and Synonyms. On the other hand, SNOMED CT concepts are described and defined by expressions following a formalism called Compositional Grammar (CG), according to which SNOMED CT might be considered a formal ontology. We investigate whether or not the ambiguity in the terms, which are formulated according to lexical and linguistic principles, is hampering the quality of the formal concept model using DL semantics and propose a more autonomous development process for formal concept definitions.