A Web-Based Tool for Development of a Common Ontology between ICD11 and SNOMED-CT

Semantic Interoperability, i.e., Preserving the meaning among health related data, is one of the crucial topics of Health Informatics. The International Classification of Diseases by WHO and SNOMED-CT, by IHTSDO, are the most prominent systems currently available for coding health data. In 2010 a collaboration agreement between the maintainers of ICD and SNOMED-CT has been signed, and gave birth to a Joint Advisory Group (JAG), aimed at defining a common basis between both terminological systems, in the form of a Common Ontology. In fact, in addition to the base task of defining the logical structure of the Common Ontology, JAG also designed a workflow for identifying its content items. As a preliminary step, the investigation of three specific ICD11 chapters has been designed to understand the total workload and calendar of activities. The present paper briefly describes the method and the tool that has been developed to support the latter investigation.