Mapping of Wound Infection Concepts

Wound infection is a serious health care complication. Standardized clinical terminologies could be leveraged to support the early identification of wound infection. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the representation of wound infection assessment and diagnosis concepts (N=26) in SNOMED CT and ICNP, using a synthesized procedural framework. A total of 13/26 (50%) assessment and diagnosis concepts had exact matches in SNOMED CT and 2/7 (29%) diagnosis concepts had exact matches in ICNP. This study demonstrated that the source concepts were moderately well represented in SNOMED CT and ICNP; however, further work is necessary to increase the representation of diagnostic infection types. The use of the framework facilitated a systematic, transparent, and repeatable mapping process, with opportunity to extend.