Maintenance burden
Maps intended for ongoing use often require a commitment of resources and tools, and so can be quite costly to maintain.
Maintenance may be required whenever there is a change to the source or target code sets. Some terminologies are more dynamic than others, with a faster update cycle, which can increase the maintenance burden - for example, Medication releases can be monthly, whereas some classifications have an annual cycle. The more dynamic the code sets, the greater the maintenance burden.
During maintenance, the following should be considered:
for new source codes, new map rows need to be created
for retired/removed source codes, the map rows need to be removed
for retired/removed target codes of maps, the map rows need to be updated to find suitable targets
for non-equivalent maps, the map targets should be re-evaluated to check if there is a more suitable target
Maintenance can be non-trivial, and consideration should be given before beginning the mapping process to determine whether it is worthwhile to develop, implement, and maintain a map or whether a different implementation pathway is more appropriate.
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