Icons

Top-level concepts and dedicated icons

To facilitate working with SNOMED CT, each top-level concept has its own dedicated icon which is also used for its children (e.g. a heart icon for clinical findings). This way, you can easily distinguish the different top-level hierarchies from each other, no matter where you are working within the hierarchy or what function of Snow Owl you are using.

You can find below the icons that are used in Snow Owl to identify top-level concepts accompanied by a bit of information about their content:

Icon	Description
SNOMED CT Concept	Also called as root concept.
Body structure	Normal (e.g. Entire femur) or abnormal (e.g. Vascular polyp) body structures. Anatomically abnormal body structures are found in the Morphologically altered structure sub-hierarchy.
Clinical finding	Outcomes of clinical observation, assessment, or judgment, as well as normal and abnormal (e.g. Pulse fast) states. Clinical states that are necessarily abnormal (e.g. Acute allergic reaction) are found in the Disease sub-hierarchy.
Environmental or geographic location	Different types of environments (e.g. Intensive care unit, Toxic environment, Cold zone) and locations such as countries, states, and regions (e.g. Burundi, Arizona, Island in the region of North America).
Event	Occurrences (e.g. Accident, Exposure to carbon dioxide, Air travel, Environmental event). Procedures and interventions are excluded from this category.
Observable entity	Entities that can be measured or observed (e.g. Age at first symptom, Blood pressure, Body temperature).
Organism	Organisms that are relevant in human and veterinary medicine such as animals (e.g. Canis lupus familiaris), plants (e.g. Amaryllis), life-cycle forms (e.g. Bacterial spore), trophic life forms (e.g. Carnivore), chromista (e.g. Oomycota), and microorganisms (e.g. Fungus).
Pharmaceutical / biological product	Drug products (e.g. Oral form aspirin, Alcoholic disinfectant, Lavender oil). This hierarchy has to be distinguished from the substance hierarchy, in which the chemical constituents used in pharmaceutical products are represented.
Physical force	Different kinds of physical influences that are connected to an injury. Examples: Detonation, Air and water pressure, Radiation, Mechanical stress
Physical object	Devices (e.g. Industrial machine), materials (e.g. Leather), instruments (e.g. Firearm), vehicles (e.g. Snowmobile), and other natural or man-made objects (e.g. Hospital bed, Silver jewelry).
Procedure	Activity in the healthcare sector such as administrative (e.g. Death certification, Formal complaint about GP), invasive (e.g. Removal of wart), diagnostic (e.g. Complete blood count), imaging (e.g. Radiography of shoulder), educational procedures (e.g. Diet education), as well as referrals (e.g. Referral by clinical oncologist)
Qualifier value	Qualifier value concepts are used as values for other SNOMED CT attributes. For example, the values for specifying the laterality of an ulnar fracture (i.e. Left, Right) are contained here.
Record artifact	Documents that were created to provide information about healthcare-related events or states of affairs (e.g. Anesthesia record, Birth certificate).
Situation with explicit context	Concepts in this hierarchy specify the circumstances of a procedure, a finding, or a condition. They refer to procedures and conditions in the past (e.g. Injection given) or future (e.g. Awaiting radiotherapy), findings that can be ruled out (e.g. No cardiovascular symptom), or information about someone other than the patient (e.g. Family history of alcoholism).
SNOMED CT Model Component	Core metadata concepts (provides structural information for international releases), foundation metadata concepts (reference sets, reference set attributes), linkage concepts (attributes, link assertions), namespace concepts, module concepts (e.g. national extensions), etc.
Social context	Social aspects that may influence the health and treatment of a patient. Concepts refer to social status (e.g. Lower middle class economic status), ethnic group (e.g. Caucasian), religion (e.g. Anglican), lifestyle (e.g. Eating habit), family (e.g. Divorced parents), and occupation (e.g. Factory worker).
Special concept	Inactive concepts (e.g. outdated concept) as well as some navigational concepts.
Specimen	Samples or specimens that were acquired for examination or analysis. Examples: Blood sample, Genetic sample, Environmental swab, Specimen from bone marrow obtained by biopsy.
Staging and Scales	Concepts in this hierarchy refer to different instruments of testing and scaling: Assessment scales (e.g. Stanford Binet intelligence scale), classifications (e.g. Endometriosis classification of American Fertility Society), grading systems (e.g. Nottingham histologic grading system), symptom ratings (e.g. Chest pain rating), and tumor staging (e.g. Cancer staging).
Substance	Substances and chemical constituents that are used for pharmaceutical and biological products, as well as body, dietary, and diagnostic substances. Examples: Diclofenac, Melatonin, Urine protein, Swimming pool water.