How To Search for a Concept

Click on "concepts" to view the main list of concepts. A standard search interface is provided. One can also look for concepts that have specific tags associated them, using the tags box (which has autocomplete to discover tags). A tick box enables finding only concepts that you have created.

Content is never deleted from the system permanently–the "delete" function makes a concept invisible by default, but it is still present in the system. Deleted concepts can be included in the search by clicking the appropriate tick box.

You can only see content that has been shared with you (either because a concept has been made public, or because you are part of a group within which a concept has been shared). 

How to View a Concept

Clicking on the magnifying glass icon to the far right of a concept in the results allows you to view it. The top portion of the page shows documentation and permission information. 

The "Components" section is where the clinical codes that make up a concept are actually defined. Each component matches a certain set of codes, and there are several types of components which implement several ways of adding codes:

• Individually selected codes - This type allows the user to manually select which codes will be added. This is done either by a search for codes, and then selecting which codes from the search results to include; or by uploading a CSV.
• Expression match - This type also allows a search for codes, but this is a simple rule, where all codes that match an expression are included in the concept. 
• Query builder - a more complex set of rules, using multiple logical conditions and referring to multiple fields within the coding system lookup table, can be defined.
• Concept - A concept can include codes for one or more other concepts, allowing hierarchical relationships to be defined (for example, an "any diabetes" concept could be defined which includes concepts for type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, etc.).

Components can be defined as "inclusion" or "exclusion". The codes matched by an "exclusion" component will be excluded from the concept, even if they appear in other "inclusion" components.

A full history of all changes made to a concept is stored, and that history is shown at the bottom of the concept page. The old versions can be viewed using the magnifying glass symbol.