Evaluation of Terminology servers for use with SNOMED CT

Abstract: Today, electronic healthcare still suffers from a lack of unified semantics and classifications of patient data. Electronic health records may not be properly processed across the globe, and if they are, data is often lost upon conversion. A way to tackle this problem is with proper data classification using terminologies and by using terminology servers, which map between terminologies. In this thesis the focus lies on evaluating a set of open source terminology servers on their qualities with respect to usability and performance. We evaluate them by finding out how we can use and work with the SNOMED CT terminology through the servers. This thesis uses a heuristic evaluation where it measures a set of criteria based on defined properties of the servers and artifacts related to them. This way, a candidate server for integration with COSMIC, a software solution by CAMBIO for the electronic healthcare system which aims to conform to the idea of a global electronic health record standard, is found.