The specification/definition of terms may impact structure of the data model implementations.
For example, in a relational model, many-to-many relations between tables often result in complex schemas and/or result in ad-hoc work arounds. They also may create issue for denormalized schemas, such as star schemas.
Some examples from the healthcare domain:
one patient can be under the care of many physicians; one physician can care for many patients
one tooth surface can contain many fillings; one filling can cover many tooth surfaces
one anatomical site can contain many cancers; one cancer can be located in multiple anatomical sites
In each of the examples above, the definitions for patient, physician, tooth surface, anatomical site, cancer may be agnostic with respect to the arity of relation between the entities. However, issues arise when creating a data model to capture this information, or even when preparing spreadsheets for submission.
The specification/definition of terms may impact structure of the data model implementations. For example, in a relational model, many-to-many relations between tables often result in complex schemas and/or result in ad-hoc work arounds. They also may create issue for denormalized schemas, such as star schemas.
Some examples from the healthcare domain: one patient can be under the care of many physicians; one physician can care for many patients one tooth surface can contain many fillings; one filling can cover many tooth surfaces one anatomical site can contain many cancers; one cancer can be located in multiple anatomical sites
In each of the examples above, the definitions for patient, physician, tooth surface, anatomical site, cancer may be agnostic with respect to the arity of relation between the entities. However, issues arise when creating a data model to capture this information, or even when preparing spreadsheets for submission.