Concept explainer
Terminology mapping
Explains how coded terms in another system are mapped onto the vocabulary Pensieve uses, so meaning is kept across systems.
Another system codes a diagnosis, a test or a drug in its own vocabulary. Terminology mapping matches those coded terms onto the vocabulary Pensieve uses, so the meaning of a term is kept as it crosses between systems.
The vocabularies Pensieve keeps
Pensieve keeps a standard vocabulary for each clinical domain, and a mapping resolves a foreign code onto the matching standard term. Naming a domain by its standard is what lets a code from one system read the same as a code from another.
| Domain | Standard |
|---|---|
| Findings, diagnoses and procedures | SNOMED CT |
| Laboratory observations | LOINC |
| Reporting and classification | ICD-10, with ICD-11 alongside |
| Drugs | An India national drug code set |
| Traditional medicine | An AYUSH extension |
| Units of measure | UCUM |
The map lives at the centre
The map is held inside Pensieve, and stays off the bridge. A coded vocabulary is sensitive structural knowledge, so it lives on the trusted side while the bridge forwards a raw code and the platform resolves it.
The map holds a central base and a per-site overlay. A term resolves in order, the site overlay first so a site's own choice wins, then the central base, and then the handling for a term with no match.
The original is kept
The source term travels with its match
A resolved term carries the original code and the sender's free text beside the canonical term, kept together. Each term also stamps the version of the code system and the map it resolved under, so a record coded today re-resolves the same way when that version is pinned later.
A term with no match
A code with no match is handled rather than dropped. The platform keeps the original, queues the code for a person to map, and signals the queue, so a message keeps moving while the code waits for a human decision.
An administrator sets the handling per feed, and the choices are precise.
Carry the source code onward as it stands.
Resolve to a configured code.
Delegate the term to another configured map.
Hold the code for a human to map, the safe default for a clinical feed.
Binding strength
A field can require its code to belong to a named set of allowed values. A required value outside that set holds the message back, and a softer binding keeps the value and raises a note, so a strict field stays clean while a looser one stays informative.
One source code can resolve to several canonical codes. Where a person's choice is the honest answer, the platform holds the several and leaves the choice to a person rather than picking one silently.
Units keep their dimension
A unit is validated against the standard grammar and converted by dimension. A conversion between commensurable units resolves by a computed factor, and a pair across dimensions, a mass against a volume, is refused rather than coerced. The grammar is case sensitive, so a unit is read exactly as written.
A shared vocabulary
Terminology is a shared capability the whole platform reads. Billing draws its codes, orders draw procedure codes, and the record draws a display term, all from the one map, so a code carries the same meaning wherever it is read.
Common questions
Where is the terminology map held?
Inside Pensieve, on the trusted side. The bridge carries raw codes and holds no vocabulary of its own.
What happens to a code the map has yet to see?
It is kept with its original text and queued for a person to map. The message keeps moving, and the code is settled by hand.
Check a mapping in a dry run before live messages flow in the dry run simulator.