Re-activation policy

Hi everyone

Another topic for discussion in the face to face meetings - the standardisation of the SNOMED CT policy towards re-activation of RF2 records.

For example, we have had instances where MRCM records were originally inactivated, and replaced with updated versions that were subsequently proven to be less valid than the original records. The question was then whether or not to re-activate the original records, or to inactivate the new (invalid replacements) and create new valid records identical to the original records (but with new ID's).

Initially, it seems clear that the correct choice is re-activation, as this is cleaner, keeps churn in the files down to a minimum, and avoids confusion with any potential de-duping processes.

However, there is an argument from the users point of view, who seem to prefer to have complete visibility of the historical audit trail, and from this perspective having all inactivations and the final (new) active records in the snapshot + delta makes it easier for those who don’t use the full file to see what decisions were taken and when.

So we would like to agree a standard, consistent approach to use, rather than deciding on a case by case basis.