Abstraction of Data Elements of Clinical Symptoms in Chinese Medicine

This report analyzes the existing problems in terminology referring to clinical symptoms of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) from the viewpoint of data sharing and elaborates the necessity of establishing a standard directory of clinical data elements of TCM. We evaluated the principles and methods of data element extraction according to the status quo of the clinical information system and characteristics of symptoms for TCM and consequently proposed a three-layer model for optimal extraction.