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VetSCT©		 Small Animal Problem and Diagnosis Terms Consolidated

April 1, 2023
VTSL would like to announce the consolidation of the AAHA Problem and Diagnosis Terms (AAHA PDT) and the Small Animal Specialty Problem and Diagnosis Term (SAS PDT). The AAHA PDT were initially created and supported by the American Animal Hospital Association to provide standardized terms for use in general small animal practice in order to support better data collection in private practice. The success of the AAHA PDT led Blue Pearl Veterinary Partners to collaborate with VTSL in the creation of the SAS PDT to be used in conjunction with the AAHA PDT in specialty practice. As more and more veterinarians seek advanced training to expand their practices abilities to diagnose and treat their patients, it has become increasingly difficult to determine what content is needed for general practice and what is only of interest to a specialist. Therefore, VTSL has determined that the veterinary community will be best served by consolidation of these two subsets. The Small Animal Problem and Diagnosis Terms (SA-PDT) will replace both the AAHA PDT and the SAS PDT, and will contain all content relevant to small animal practice, inclusive of general, specialty and emergency practice. One last release of the SAS PDT is available which shows all content retired for completeness. The final SAS PDT release is available in the SAS project. The new consolidated SA-PDT is available in the SA PDT project. VTSL also continues to maintain the AAEP Problem and Diagnosis Terms for equine practice. It is available in the AAEP Project.


VetSCT©		 Veterinary Extension of SNOMED CT© - April 2023 Release Available

April 1, 2023
The veterinary extension has been updated. This extension release is compatible with the January 2023 International release of SNOMED CT. Licensed SNOMED CT users may obtain a copy of this release by logging into this site. Users in the United States who obtained a SNOMED license through the National Library of Medicine may login to VTSL with a UMLS credentials. Non-US users in member countries and users in non-member countries who have obtained an Affiliate license at SNOMED.ORG can contact VTSL at vtsl.info@vt.edu to establish an account here. Login to VTSL to access this update via the Download page in the Extension Project.

Client Services...

The Veterinary Terminology Services Laboratory (VTSL) is dedicated to practical application of standardized medical terminologies which facilitates the recording and analysis of clinical information, supports translational research activities and thereby improve animal and public health. Governmental and private organizations contract with VTSL to support practical application of standardized terminologies in veterinary medicine and public health. VTSL client services include terminology management, facilitated collaboration and education.

Terminology Management & Resources

Modern medical terminologies are extremely large and complicated. Practical application almost always means that some portion(s) of any given terminology (often referred to as a subset) is all that is required for specific purpose(s). Subsets of medical terminologies require updating and content addition as the needs of users and medical disciplines advance. Veterinary medicine is often not the focus of large medical terminologies so they may not include adequate veterinary content. Finally, application of a terminology by any particular base of veterinary users implies that the terminology will need to be distributed amongst the various parties and such distribution must be automated and well coordinated in order to assure consistency and currency.

Terminology Resources: The Veterinary Extension of SNOMED CT (VetSCT), the AAHA Diagnostic Terms, the AAEP Diagnostic Terms and NAHLN terminology subsets are all available for download via their respective Projects on this website. NAHLN subsets are available without a login. Access to the download files for VetSCT, AAHA Diagnotic Terms or AAEP Diagnostic Terms requires log in to the system. This is required due to IHTSDO licensing requirements for the use of SNOMED CT content.

Subset Management: Modern medical terminologies are extremely large and complicated. Practical application requires the creation of smaller, more manageable portions of these terminologies (referred to as subsets). VTSL can develop on a contract basis specialized terminologies to organizations and individuals who intend to apply SNOMED-CT® to support modern medical records, evidence-based medicine, sharing of data and outcome, public health monitoring and other projects and software requiring a widely accepted, uniform terminology. These subsets require updating and content addition as the needs of users and medical disciplines advance.

Content Addition: The primary focus of large medical terminologies is human medicine. While human and veterinary medical content often overlap, this still leaves large gaps in content necessary for veterinary data. Content must be expanded to cover those gaps in order to support veterinary data collection and analysis.

Distribution: Successful application of a terminology requires that access be available and content be distributed to all applicable users. This distribution should be automated and well-coordinated in order to assure consistency and currency.

Mapping services: We frequently provide mapping (alignment) services to those who have an existing terminology list.

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Facilitated Collaboration

We help veterinary organizations determine their own best approach to standardized terminologies.

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Education

We make educational materials available to veterinary organizations deploying standardized terminologies and provide educational opportunities to individual veterinarians.

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Terminology Development

We believe that in order for SNOMED-CT® to contribute to Veterinary Medicine, its veterinary content must be enriched. VTSL acts, on behalf of various veterinary stakeholders, to facilitate the incorporation of high quality veterinary terminology content within the SNOMED-CT® universe.

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