Abstract
In response to the evolving dynamics of healthcare, this research underscores the need for robust solutions to facilitate the exchange of clinical terminology, ensuring seamless communication and interoperability across healthcare systems. Terminology servers are pivotal in standardising and managing terminology, ensuring consistent communication and knowledge sharing. We must choose a modern, highly customisable, multilingual terminology server that supports FHIR and standard terminologies. This article offers a comprehensive overview of the challenges and limitations of existing clinical terminology exchange methods. We evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of prominent terminology servers. The findings reveal crucial insights into the current landscape of terminology management solutions, uncovering limitations and potential gaps. As a result, the article concludes with a compelling argument for the need to explore and develop a new enhanced terminology server solution. This exploration responds to the evolving demands of the modern healthcare industry and sets the stage for future advancements in clinical terminology management.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andrews, J.C., Bogliatto, F., Lawson, H.W., Bornstein, J.: Speaking the same language: using standardized terminology (2016)
Apelon: Apelon Distributed Terminology System (DTS) (2024). http://www.apelondts.org/
Awaysheh, A., Wilcke, J., Elvinger, F., Rees, L., Fan, W., Zimmerman, K.: A review of medical terminology standards and structured reporting. J. Vet. Diagn. Invest. 30(1), 17–25 (2018)
B2iHealthcare: Snowray. The Healthcare Terminology Service (2024). https://snowray.app/
Bender, D., Sartipi, K.: HL7 FHIR: an agile and RESTful approach to healthcare information exchange. In: Proceedings of the 26th IEEE International Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems, pp. 326–331. IEEE (2013)
Benson, T., Grieve, G., Benson, T., Grieve, G.: Snomed CT. Principles of Health Interoperability: FHIR, HL7 and SNOMED CT, pp. 293–324 (2021)
Bodenreider, O., Cornet, R., Vreeman, D.J.: Recent developments in clinical terminologies-SNOMED CT, LOINC, and RxNorm. Yearb. Med. Inform. 27(01), 129–139 (2018)
CSIRO: Ontoserver (2024). https://ontoserver.csiro.au/
Gazzarata, R., Maggi, N., Magnoni, L.D., Monteverde, M.E., Ruggiero, C., Giacomini, M.: Semantics management for a regional health information system in Italy by CTS2 and FHIR. In: Applying the FAIR Principles to Accelerate Health Research in Europe in the Post COVID-19 Era: Proceedings of the 2021 EFMI Special Topic Conference, vol. 287, p. 119. IOS Press (2021)
HL7: HL7 Common Terminology Services. Service Functional Model Specification. Release 2 (2022). http://www.hl7.org/documentcenter/private/standards/CTS/V3_CTS2_r2_2015FEB_R2022.pdf
HL7: FHIR is a standard for health care data exchange, published by HL7® (2023). http://hl7.org/fhir
HL7: FHIR Terminology Module (2023). http://hl7.org/fhir/terminology-module.html
IHTSDO: Snowstorm (2024). https://github.com/IHTSDO/snowstorm/
ISO: Sector: Health (2024). https://www.iso.org/sectors/health
Lehne, M., Sass, J., Essenwanger, A., Schepers, J., Thun, S.: Why digital medicine depends on interoperability. NPJ Digit. Med. 2(1), 79 (2019)
Luna, D., Otero, C., Gambarte, M.L., Frangella, J.: Terminology services: standard terminologies to control medical vocabulary. “Words are not what they say but what they mean”. In: Heston, T.F. (ed.) eHealth. IntechOpen, Rijeka (2018). https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.75781
Metke-Jimenez, A., Steel, J., Hansen, D., Lawley, M.: Ontoserver: a syndicated terminology server. J. Biomed. Semant. 9, 1–10 (2018)
Health Standards Organization: Why health care standards matter (2024). https://healthstandards.org/standards/why-standards-matter
Regenstrief Institute, Inc.: LOINC (2023). https://loinc.org/
Rhapsody: Rhapsody®Semantic terminology management feature overview (2024). https://rhapsody.health/resources/rhapsody-semantic-terminology-management-feature-overview/
SNOMED International: SNOMED CT (2023). https://www.snomed.org/
Termmed: TermSpace (2024). https://cf-prod-main.termspace.com/
TermX: About (2024). https://termx.org
TermX: Download (2024). https://termx.org/download
TermX: Tutorial (2024). https://termx.org/docs
Wardle, M.: Hermes (2024). https://github.com/wardle/hermes/
WHO: ICD (2023). https://www.who.int/
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
M.I. and I.B. designed the idea for the manuscript, and M.I. wrote it with support from I.B. All authors contributed to the final version. G.P. and P.R. supervised the project.
This work in the project “ICT programme” was supported by the European Union through the European Social Fund.
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2025 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Ivanova, M., Bossenko, I., Piho, G., Ross, P. (2025). Comparative Analysis of Clinical Terminology Servers: A Quest for an Improved Solution. In: Bach Tobji, M.A., Jallouli, R., Sadok, H., Lajfari, K., Mafamane, D., Mahboub, H. (eds) Digital Economy. Emerging Technologies and Business Innovation. ICDEc 2024. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 531. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-76368-7_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-76368-7_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-76367-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-76368-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)