Glossary

For purposes of this document, the following terms are used:

Term	Description
Standardized Vocabularies	Contains a system of Vocabularies, Classifications, Domains and Concepts all consolidated into a common format and stored in a set of CDM tables.
Vocabulary	A set of codes or concepts, including if available relationships amongst them, including if available a hierarchy, ontology or taxonomy of the concepts. Many vocabularies are adopted from national or international organizations, such as ICD-9-CM, SNOMED-CT, RxNorm, Read.
Terminology	Similar to vocabulary and often used synonymously, but not used in this document.
Coding scheme	Similar to vocabulary and often used synonymously, but not used in this document.
Coding scheme	Similar to vocabulary and often used synonymously, but not used in this document.
Classification	A hierarchical system of concepts and concept relationships that defines semantically useful classes, like chemical structures for drugs.
Concept	Basic unit of information defined in each Vocabulary.
Domain	A clinical semantic category, like Drug, Condition, Procedure defined for all Concepts in the Standardized Vocabularies.
Concept Class	An attribute of a concept characterizing it's classification within a Vocabulary. The difference to the classification is that a concept class is a single attribute without any hierarchical structure.