Assisting the Translation of the CORE Subset of SNOMED CT Into French

Abstract

Background: the Core Subset of SNOMED CT is part of the UMLS-Core Project dedicated to study problem list vocabularies. SNOMED CT is not yet translated into French. Objective: to propose an automated method to assist the translation of the CORE Subset of SNOMED CT into French. Material: the 2009 AA versions of the CORE Subset of SNOMED CT and UMLS; use of four French-language terminologies integrated into the UMLS Metathesaurus: SNOMED International, ICD10, MedDRA, and MeSH. Method: an exact mapping completed by a close mapping between preferred terms of the CORE Subset of SNOMED CT and those of the four terminologies. Results: 89% of the preferred terms of the CORE Subset of SNOMED CT are mapped with at least one preferred term in one of the four terminologies. Discussion: if needed, synonymous terms could be added by the means of synonyms in the terminologies; the proposed method is independent from French and could be applied to other natural languages.