Modelling and reclassification of surgical procedures - experiences from the use of GALEN methods in the domain of thoracic surgery

This paper reports on experiences from the evaluation of GALEN methods for mapping of follow-up categories in the domain of thoracic surgery to an exi sting classification of surgical procedures. The mapping of the aggregated levels or groups of thoracic procedures presents a genuine problem in relat ion to strict hierarchical classifications, since the follow-up categories do not necessarily fit in the pre-set structure of the classification. Expe riences from modelling of the traditional classification and of the follow- up categories are reported, and an analysis of the results is presented alo ng with a discussion of opportunities and potential problems and pitfalls w hen applying GALEN models and tools.