Flow chart shows a box with “Data Element: Person Ethnic Group Code (CDE)” at the top, with connections flowing to other boxes featuring descriptors used by other systems. The first connecting box reads: “What is being described? e.g., Person (Object Class)” which leads to a box with the concept number, “C25290 Concept.” The second connecting box reads: “What characteristic? e.g., Ethnic Group (Property),” which leads to the box “C16564 Concept.” The third box reads: “How is it represented? Code (Representa

Illustration shows how a single CDE can capture the full semantics needed to describe data. In this case, the CDE is “Person Ethnic Group Code,” one of the NCIt permitted values is “38003564,”which means “Not Hispanic or Latino.” The CDE at the top bundles all the concepts needed to describe and correctly interpret these data.