Clinical data modeling covering healthcare terminology systems (ICD-10, SNOMED CT, LOINC, RxNorm, CPT, NDC), clinical document architecture, patient data normalization, temporal clinical data patterns, and clinical decision support data models.
Clinical data modeling covering healthcare terminology systems (ICD-10, SNOMED CT, LOINC, RxNorm, CPT, NDC), clinical document architecture, patient data normalization, temporal clinical data patterns, and clinical decision support data models.
allowed-tools
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Clinical Data Modeling
When to use
Designing a data model that stores diagnoses, observations, medications, or procedures
Mapping between terminology systems (ICD-10, SNOMED, LOINC, RxNorm)
Implementing a Master Patient Index or patient matching algorithm
Building a C-CDA to FHIR conversion pipeline
Designing time-series storage for vitals, labs, or clinical events
Implementing clinical decision support rules against coded clinical data
Core principles
Coded concepts over free text — bind every clinical element to a standard code system; free text cannot drive logic reliably
MPI is ground truth — patient identity lives in one authoritative index; all source MRNs are aliases
Bi-temporal modeling by default — separate "when it happened clinically" from "when it was recorded"; both matter for audit and legal hold
Terminology mapping is lossy — every SNOMED-to-ICD-10 map has exceptions; document them and handle unmapped concepts explicitly
CDS rules are data, not code — store clinical knowledge (rules, guidelines, order sets) separately from patient data so clinicians can update them without a deployment