The VMDB Database consists of data collected from
participating University Veterinary Teaching Hospitals in
Historically, since the early 1960s these data were submitted using a nomenclature or terminology called SNVDO. As many universities transitioned to new hospital information systems in the late 1990s some were unable to collect data for a period of time but are now able to submit again. Many schools now submit data using a new clinical health care terminology, SNOMED CT® (www.snomed.org). SNOMED CT® has been chosen by the AVMA and the Veterinary Medical Databases (the parent organization of VMDB) as the clinical terminology of choice for veterinary medicine.
Therefore, depending upon the time frame chosen for your search, results may be provided in SNVDO, SNOMED, or both. There is not a one-to-one relationship between the two terminologies. So depending upon the type of search you request you may receive two separate sets of results dependent on the time period and institution from which the data is drawn. Depending upon the type of request, diagnoses and procedures may or may not be able to be ‘lumped together’ between the two systems.
The universities submit final diagnoses, major procedures performed, as well as additional non-confidential information about patients. The type of data submitted in either SNVDO or SNOMED is outlined below.
SNVDO DATA:
vmdb.org/SNVDO_INPUT_FORMAT.htm
Certain SNVDO data are submitted using categories rather than the actual data values, i.e., age, weight, gender/sex, species, and discharge status. The keycode table needed to read these data in SNVDO is located at: vmdb.org/snvdo_keycode.htm
SNOMED DATA:
Most SNOMED data are submitted using the actual data, values i.e., birthdate rather than an age category, true weight rather than a weight category, etc. Those transmission standards can be located at: