The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia joins the SNOMED CT Community Back 24 Jun 2019 Back London, United Kingdom, June 24, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SNOMED International and the National Health Information Center (NHIC) are pleased to announce that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has recently joined as the organization’s thirty-ninth Member. The NHIC has been established pursuant to the Saudi royal decree no. 333 to be linked with health services and connected to an electronic network of health information with the Ministry of Health, medical services in the military bodies, university hospitals and other relevant government agencies. It is the vision of the Center to serve as the core axis of smart, safe and reliable digital information and healthcare services in the Kingdom and in doing so will provide, organize and exchange health information electronically among bodies of health sectors and other relevant bodies. Through Membership in SNOMED International, the Kingdom and NHIC have committed support for structured terminology to address national tasks to standardize clinical terminology, names and definitions used in all health information systems and methods of collection. With the Kingdom’s strategic aims to support transformation of electronic healthcare services along with facilitating the circulation of health data and information electronically safely, SNOMED CT is a valuable tool to be used throughout the country. SNOMED CT is the world’s most comprehensive health terminology. Founded in 2007 by nine charter nations, SNOMED International is a not-for-profit, member-owned and driven international organization. The addition of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has grown the organization’s Membership to thirty-nine countries and territories across five continents and enables management and use SNOMED CT and other related products. Membership also extends to participation on the General Assembly, a critical governance role which includes responsibility for approval of the organization's budget and strategy. “The Kingdom’s Membership in SNOMED International will extend the footprint of clinical terminology in place in hospital and health information systems within Saudi Arabia. In line with the launch of the Kingdom’s healthcare transformation strategy and Saudi’s 2030 Vision, investment in digital health infrastructure such as clinical terminology standards will contribute to accomplishing these goals” says SNOMED International CEO, Don Sweete. “SNOMED CT is internationally recognized as a powerful terminology for healthcare. Through our Membership in SNOMED International we are certain we can increase patient safety in the kingdom by eliminating errors occurring due to misinterpreted data, while fulfilling our National E- Health Strategy aligned with the Kingdom’s healthcare transformation strategy and 2030 Vision” says the NHIC’s General Director. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia becomes the third country within the Middle East region to join SNOMED International, further extending the SNOMED CT use, implementation experience and collaboration opportunities for the area. To learn more about the National Health Information Center visit https://nhic.gov.sa/en/Pages/default.aspx . Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

Building the Business Case for SNOMED CT Back 3 Nov 2014 Back IHTSDO announces the release of a new study to help current and prospective Members of IHTSDO build the business case for national SNOMED CT adoption and IHTSDO membership. Membership and national use of SNOMED CT have a number of advantages in terms of reduced costs and improved care, such as: Cost savings in terminology development, licensing fees, and transcription costs of mapping to ICD or other coding systems; Reductions in inappropriate or duplicate testing Reduction in adverse drug events Improved management of key disease groups, such as cardiac care and oncology Encoded health information and decision support tools enable these benefits. Consistently codified information enables comparison, exchange and reuse throughout the healthcare system. Therefore, an open SNOMED CT-based ecosystem presents an opportunity for exponential increases in benefits. To learn more about these benefits and about how to build the business case for sustaining and expanding investments in SNOMED CT to drive your health system improvements, please see the executive summary presentation and the complete report . Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

SNOMED recognizes and celebrates 2023 Lifetime Achievement and Award for Excellence winners Back 21 Dec 2023 Back As 2023 draws to a close, SNOMED International recognizes its 2023 Lifetime Achievement and Award for Excellence winners SNOMED International recently awarded two Lifetime Achievement and two Awards for Excellence at its 2023 Awards Gala held in conjunction with SNOMED CT Expo 2023 in Atlanta, GA. Vivian Auld, Dr. Keith E Campbell, Pim Volkert and W. Scott Campbell recognized. The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes individuals for outstanding, sustained contribution in the development and promotion of SNOMED CT and overall global leadership in the terminology field. The Award of Excellence is given for outstanding contribution to the improvement of SNOMED CT and its successful implementation in health and social care. Lifetime Achievement Award winner Vivian Auld The first award in this category was given to Vivian Auld, Senior Specialist for Health Data Standards (retired) at the US National Library of Medicine. Vivian, who was involved with US federal strategy for terminology standards for electronic health records since the early 1990s, worked at the US National Library of Medicine for almost three decades, where she focused on supporting the nationwide implementation of an interoperable health information technology infrastructure to improve the overall quality and efficiency of health care. She was also an active member of the team that developed and executed the strategy which led to the inclusion and acceptance of SNOMED CT in US health data policy, and played a role in discussions about global adoption of SNOMED CT. Vivian has been and remains an advocate for the equal rights of all SNOMED International Members regardless of size or wealth and an ambassador for SNOMED CT adoption and implementation. Lifetime Achievement Award winner Dr Keith E Campbell The second award in this category went to Keith E. Campbell, MD, PhD, Program Director, US Food and Drug Administration’s Systemic Harmonization and Interoperability Enhancement for Laboratory Data program. Keith was a key member of the original SNOMED CT Design Team created in 1999 following the agreement between the College of American Pathologists and the UK NHS to merge SNOMED RT with NHS Clinical Terms Version 3. As a member of SNOMED International’s original Editorial Board, Keith continued his contribution to the SNOMED Technical Design Team that produced the original distribution format and its evolution into RF2, including the reference set mechanism that today enables the graceful evolution of SNOMED CT to support broader use cases and extensibility requirements. Award for Excellence winner Pim Volkert Clinical data architecture coordinator (formerly head of the Netherlands SNOMED CT National Release Centre) Pim Volkert, a long-time ambassador and driving force for SNOMED CT in the Netherlands, also drove the translation of SNOMED CT into the Dutch language. All of these efforts resulted in the Netherlands’ adoption of SNOMED CT as the preferred terminology. Pim is also the clinical data coordinator of Health-RI, a Netherlands national program to build a national and integrated health data infrastructure for research and innovation. Award for Excellence winner W. Scott Campbell W. Scott Campbell, Associate Professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, was nominated for his work in implementing electronic health record systems in ambulatory care practices and his leadership capabilities as a terminologist and implementation specialist, bringing together, educating and guiding a large group of pathologists, terminologists and other specialists. “The SNOMED International Awards Gala, where we recognize and celebrate those SNOMED CT community members who have made outstanding contributions to the development and implementation of the clinical terminology, is always one of the biggest highlights of our yearly Expo,” says SNOMED International CEO Don Sweete . “Although there are always many worthy contenders, we salute the four chosen this year, each of whom has played such a pivotal role in the ongoing development and success of SNOMED CT globally.” About SNOMED International SNOMED International is a not-for-profit organization that owns and develops SNOMED CT, the world’s most comprehensive healthcare terminology product. We play an essential role in improving the health of humankind by determining standards for a codified language that represents groups of clinical terms. This enables healthcare information to be exchanged globally for the benefit of patients and other stakeholders. We are committed to the rigorous evolution of our products and services, to deliver continuous innovation for the global healthcare community. SNOMED International is the trading name of the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation. https://www.snomed.org/ Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

Indonesia’s national commitment to improved health services infrastructure is strengthened with SNOMED membership Back 1 Jun 2023 Back SNOMED International and the Ministry of Health Indonesia are pleased to announce that Indonesia has joined the SNOMED CT global community. Indonesia joined SNOMED International at the end of 2022 and has become the most recent Member in the Asia Pacific region. A transcontinental country spanning the southeast part of Asia and western part of Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans, Indonesia’s geography is composed of over 17,000 islands. The work of Indonesia’s Ministry of Health is guided by its vision to achieve an ‘Independent, Just and Healthy Society’ for its more than 270 million citizens. In July 2022, Indonesia's Health Ministry launched the SATUSEHAT (Indonesia Health Services) platform as a way to deliver on the country's health technology strategy. The SATUSEHAT platform (Indonesia Health Services) is a platform of data connectivity, analysis, and services to support the integration of applications across health facilities. SNOMED CT is the world’s most comprehensive health terminology. Founded in 2007 by nine charter nations, SNOMED International is a not-for-profit, member-owned and driven international organization. On this journey, SNOMED CT will support Indonesia’s digital health transformation priorities of integrating data, simplifying apps and building an innovation ecosystem with the initial deployment targeted for approximately 8,000 health facilities. Leveraging SNOMED CT, the Ministry’s approach will aim to integrate and standardize health data and exchange. “The Ministry is committed to developing health policies using data based evidence. With so many applications already running, there is an enormous quantity of health data and information available which will be standardized and integrated through SATUSEHAT, ” says Setiaji, Chief of Digital Transformation Office, the Ministry of Health Republic of Indonesia. “With significant advancement underway, Indonesia is tackling health system transformation from a national health data perspective, paying close attention to its impact on Indonesia’s patient care applications and platforms,” shares Don Sweete, CEO, SNOMED International. “As the Health Ministry delivers against its roadmap, membership in SNOMED International will yield tangible SNOMED CT products, services and resources for Indonesia to leverage. We are eager to work with Indonesia to maximize the best way SNOMED CT can support their goals for more effective and efficient national health data exchange.” Joining a community of 48 global Members, Indonesia’s membership in SNOMED International includes their input into and management and use of SNOMED CT and SNOMED International’s related products and services . Membership also extends to participation in the General Assembly, a critical governance role which includes responsibility for approval of the organization's strategy and budget. Learn more about the Ministry of Health Republic of Indonesia . Visit the SNOMED International website to learn more about SNOMED CT and the organization’s resources, stakeholders and services. About the Ministry of Health Republic of Indonesia The Ministry of Health Republic of Indonesia (MoH) is a government ministry which organizes public health affairs within the Indonesian government. The MoH has six pillars of health transformation that include primary care transformation to health technology transformation. MoH has issued the Blueprint of Digital Health Transformation Strategy 2024 that aims to lay the ground for building enterprise architecture of health technology and its health technology ecosystems in Indonesia from primary care, and secondary care, to biotechnology. About SNOMED International SNOMED International is a not-for-profit organization that owns and develops SNOMED CT, the world's most comprehensive healthcare terminology product. We play an essential role in improving the health of humankind by determining standards for a codified language that represents groups of clinical terms. This enables healthcare information to be exchanged globally for the benefit of patients and other stakeholders. We are committed to the rigorous evolution of our products and services, to deliver continuous innovation for the global healthcare community. SNOMED International is the trading name of the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organization (IHTSDO.) Media Contacts: Indonesia Boga Hardhana/Winne Widiantini Center for Data and Information Technology, Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia (e) pusdatin@kemkes.go.id SNOMED International Kelly Kuru (e) comms@snomed.org Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

SNOMED International embraces collaborative authoring Back 29 Jul 2022 Back Dr. James Case At the last April 2022 business meetings, SNOMED International staff, along with its governance bodies and community of practice, gathered in London to learn about the latest SNOMED CT/SNOMED International advances. One of the topics of particular interest to many in the audience (and beyond) focused on the organization’s efforts over the past year to engage and support those who would like to contribute content to SNOMED CT. As SNOMED CT evolves and matures, and as the organization works to become more agile and responsive to community needs, it has taken a number of big steps over the past year in the delivery and development of its products. That includes making the SNOMED CT International Edition available on a monthly basis (frequent releases) and making it easier for users to contribute to it. The following Q&A with Dr. James Case, SNOMED International’s Chief Terminologist, explores these initiatives and their impact on SNOMED CT and its user community. Q: Historically, how has SNOMED CT content been authored and by whom? JC: Content changes to SNOMED CT have most often been handled by the SNOMED CT content team, a group of clinical professionals with extensive knowledge and expertise in the editorial rules governing the curation of SNOMED CT. They are also very skilled in content development tooling, which provides the authoring platform, as well as enforcing the technical rules that provide the quality assurance for SNOMED CT content. Q: What are all the ways people outside of SNOMED International can now contribute to SNOMED CT? JC: Member countries as well as affiliates both within and outside of Member countries can apply for an extension namespace that allows for external development (i.e. outside of the international release) of SNOMED CT content. This extension content can be requested to be promoted to the international release if it is deemed to be of international relevance. The community content area is a new aspect of SNOMED that provides a mechanism for Members to contribute content to SNOMED CT that is not an official part of the international release, but can be made visible to users who might want to use that content in their systems. However, that content does not go through the same quality assurance process that the content in the international release does, so it should be used with caution. Certified external authors are those that have fulfilled the educational requirements and demonstrated skills that would allow them to be approved to edit content directly in the International release of SNOMED CT. We have a number of individuals external to SNOMED International staff who have been approved to do this type of authoring. As they are not members of SNOMED International staff, they collaborate with the SNOMED CT content team to provide authoring support. Thus, an external author is what one is and collaborative authoring is what they do. Q: How do you define each of those terms and how do they interrelate? JC: National extensions are independently managed and curated sets of SNOMED CT content that “extend” the scope of the international release to meet specific needs of the affiliate (i.e., Member country, healthcare organization, individual needs). They are dependent on the international release for analytical use and should conform to SNOMED International editorial guidance. Community content is a function provided by SNOMED International to allow content that has not been approved by the SNOMED content team to be made visible to the public. This provides a way for SNOMED CT users to “preview” content that may be promoted to the International release or has limited or highly specific use. As mentioned above, a certified external author is an individual who has fulfilled the educational and practical requirements for authoring in the international release. Any work being done by these individuals is overseen by a member of the SNOMED International content team. Collaborative authoring is the process of increasing the available editing resources of SNOMED International by cooperative work between an external author and a SNOMED International content team member. This results in the SNOMED authors playing mostly a quality assurance role as opposed to a primarily content development role. Q: Why is SNOMED International taking the approach of inviting qualified external authors (SNOMED CT International Edition) and content contributors (Community Content Area) in the content development process? JC: As SNOMED International grows and adds new members, there is increasing pressure on the content team to add and improve the existing content of SNOMED CT. This has forced the content team to prioritize content development based primarily on the strategic plan and input from the Member Forum. This sometimes places content development urgently needed by a Member at a lower priority than they would prefer. If that Member country had a certified external author, they may offer to do the content development themselves, thus speeding up the process of getting new content into SNOMED CT. With regards to the community content area, some content as originally presented to SNOMED CT does not meet the inclusion criteria for the international release, or is not fully developed according to SNOMED CT editorial guidelines. The community content area allows for this content to be made visible to the SNOMED CT community of practice to determine if it has sufficient usefulness to be considered for inclusion in the international release as well as helping to refine its content model to meet SNOMED CT editorial requirements. Q: What does this mean for our community of practice? JC: In general, this means that the community of practice can have a more active role in the development of SNOMED CT content, both in the direct enhancement of content in the international release and in the addition of content via the community area to determine the overall usefulness of content that would not normally be added to the international release (such as specific administrative concepts). It also allows for those with specific domain expertise to assist SNOMED International in improving existing content to conform to current clinical practice. Q: If we’re speaking about the SNOMED CT International Edition, what do you need to do to become a SNOMED CT certified external author? What are the educational requirements and what is the path external authors typically take? JC: The requirements to become a certified external author are described in the requirements document recently approved by the SNOMED Senior Management Team. In general, completion of the SNOMED Authoring level 1 and 2 courses are the primary educational requirements followed by successfully passing the certification exams. Once those are completed, an individual can submit a request to SNOMED to be considered for approval as a certified external author. Once approved, the external author will go through an initial evaluation period to determine if their knowledge and skills are sufficient to author in the international release. External authors will only be allowed to author in areas approved by the SNOMED CT content team, based on an authoring project submitted in advance by the external author or developed by the SNOMED Content team. Q: If we’re speaking about SNOMED International’s Community Content area, what resources are we making available to content contributors to ensure they are qualified and supported? JC: All of SNOMED International’s elearning courses are available online and will help anyone who wants to contribute to learn about the tools that are used in the Community Content area and to understand the authoring level expected for contributors. Once contributors are suitably qualified, the authoring platform used in the Community Content area adds another level of quality assurance and checking to ensure that content meets the high standards that SNOMED CT is known for. Q: Are there any particular areas that collaborative content authors are currently focusing on, or that we would like them to focus on, such as social care? JC: Currently we have collaborative authors working in the area of cancer synoptic reporting and mental health as well as a long-standing effort to incorporate the Kaiser Permanente Convergent Medical Terminology. Our primary goal was to provide a mechanism for members who would like to speed up the addition of content that they are particularly interested in, so our intention is to let the Member needs drive the areas where collaborative editing would be of most benefit to them. Q: What has been the uptake to date? Have we faced or do we anticipate any particular challenges in expanding our pool of collaborative authors, and if so, how will we approach them? JC: As this is a relatively recent area for SNOMED, there have not been any new requests for approval as an external author. We anticipate that as more people complete the authoring level 2 certification exam, we will be receiving requests for approval as external authors. As we increase the pool of people who have completed the requirements, we will reach out to those who have particular domain knowledge needed by SNOMED. The particular challenges related to this are the same as for any volunteer program, i.e., can the external authors find sufficient time to complete specific content development projects within appropriate timelines. Q: Is there any one message to our community of practice that you would like to share related to these opportunities? How do you think this will impact content development and authoring? JC: We would certainly encourage those who have successfully completed the authoring certification exams and are interested in assisting SNOMED International with content development to contact us with specific areas of content development they see needing improvement. The primary impact to content development will be a mechanism for user-based content priorities to be addressed in a more rapid manner. The secondary impact will be on the SNOMED Content Team itself, with more emphasis on quality assurance of content developed by external authors, rather than the full content development cycle. Questions about collaborative authoring and community content? Contact info@snomed.org Have a comment about this post? We’d love to hear from you. Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

The department of neurosurgery at University Hospitals Leuven, in collaboration with a terminologist, established a standardized complication registration system through an iterative consensus process. Following rigorous clinical review, 102 complications were selected, resulting in a final list of 100 concepts (91 unique SNOMED CT identifiers). Complications were categorized as: intraoperative, postoperative surgical, postoperative medical. To enable tracking the absence of complications and the proportion of completed registrations, a 'no complication' category was also included. Our standardized complication registry has been clinically operational since February 1, 2023. It documents all neurosurgical procedures (N=3501) with SNOMED CT-coded complications (or their absence) linked to surgical procedures (using local codes) in the electronic patient record (EPR) problem list and covers the period from surgery through 6 weeks of postoperative follow-up. Analysis through April 21, 2025 shows 92% coverage. Our datawarehouse integrates these procedures and complications with laboratory results, imaging reports, medications, readmissions, and survival data - providing clinicians with comprehensive patient overviews and enabling the identification of clinically relevant patterns over time Key features 1. Clinical utility: Surgeons register the complications directly in workflow using EPR templates 2. Terminology flexibility: Light version of post-coordination when needed (MRCM-compliant) 3. Future-ready: * Architecture permits eventual Clavien-Dindo integration (Grade I-V severity scoring) * Technical foundations exist for SNOMED CT procedural coding (requiring future IT development) This implementation demonstrates how SNOMED CT can support surgical outcome monitoring while pragmatically accommodating existing systems. The multidimensional linkage will enable both quality benchmarking and research applications in the future. Back View Map University Hospitals Leuven Implementation and outcomes of SNOMED CT-based complication registration in the electronic patient record: an experience at the department of neurosurgery, University Hospitals Leuven Read More Country / Region EMEA Tags Clinical Practice, Data quality, Implementation, Innovation, Pre/postcoordination The department of neurosurgery at University Hospitals Leuven, in collaboration with a terminologist, established a standardized complication registration system through an iterative consensus process. Following rigorous clinical review, 102 complications were selected, resulting in a final list of 100 concepts (91 unique SNOMED CT identifiers). Complications were categorized as: intraoperative, postoperative surgical, postoperative medical. To enable tracking the absence of complications and the proportion of completed registrations, a 'no complication' category was also included. Our standardized complication registry has been clinically operational since February 1, 2023. It documents all neurosurgical procedures (N=3501) with SNOMED CT-coded complications (or their absence) linked to surgical procedures (using local codes) in the electronic patient record (EPR) problem list and covers the period from surgery through 6 weeks of postoperative follow-up. Analysis through April 21, 2025 shows 92% coverage. Our datawarehouse integrates these procedures and complications with laboratory results, imaging reports, medications, readmissions, and survival data - providing clinicians with comprehensive patient overviews and enabling the identification of clinically relevant patterns over time Key features 1. Clinical utility: Surgeons register the complications directly in workflow using EPR templates 2. Terminology flexibility: Light version of post-coordination when needed (MRCM-compliant) 3. Future-ready: * Architecture permits eventual Clavien-Dindo integration (Grade I-V severity scoring) * Technical foundations exist for SNOMED CT procedural coding (requiring future IT development) This implementation demonstrates how SNOMED CT can support surgical outcome monitoring while pragmatically accommodating existing systems. The multidimensional linkage will enable both quality benchmarking and research applications in the future. Description This implementation project has dual clinical and research objectives with direct patient care impact: Primary: Clinical Quality Improvement * Real-time monitoring of postoperative complications through standardized SNOMED CT documentation * Supports clinical decision support: triggered alerts for abnormal values (lab/imaging) Secondary: Research Enablement Provides structured outcome data for: * Service-level quality benchmarking * Postoperative recovery trajectory analysis Scalable Architecture: Designed for future expansion to: * Ranking the severity of the complication (Clavien-Dindo) * Procedure coding standardization * Multidisciplinary complication management This scope reflects our "quality-first" approach where research benefits emerge from clinically relevant, caregiver-driven data collection. Scope SNOMED CT was selected for this initiative based on both clinical-technical merits and alignment with Belgian healthcare policy: * Mandated National Standard * Implements the Belgian government's strategic choice for SNOMED CT as the preferred clinical terminology * Complies with recommendations from Belgian healthcare agencies (e.g., eHealth Platform) * Clinical Precision for Neurosurgery * Provides granular concepts tailored to neurosurgical complications * Enables accurate distinction between similar conditions (e.g., different locations of nerve injury’s) * Future-Proof Infrastructure * Allows integration with other SNOMED CT-coded data across the healthcare continuum * Facilitates compliance with evolving Belgian digital health regulations How SNOMED CT will be used Clinical Registration Process: * Neurosurgeons directly record complications (or their absence) as SNOMED CT-coded diagnoses/findings in the patient's problem list using drop-down menus or a grid of tiles (EPR) * Critical implementation detail: * The surgical procedures remain coded using the hospital's local procedure coding system (non-SNOMED) * The association between complication and procedure is established through the EPR's native relationship mechanism (non-SNOMED link) * This hybrid approach ensures clinical workflow compatibility while maintaining semantic precision for complications Post-Coordination Approach: * When required concepts aren't available as precoordinated terms, we employ a light post-coordination method using EPR templates * Methodology: * Start with the most specific available parent concept * Add clinical meaning through attribute relationships * Strictly follow MRCM (Reference Set Member) rules for valid concept composition * Example: If a specific complication isn't available, we might: * Select the broader SNOMED concept (e.g., "Complication associated with nervous system implant") * Add attributes like: * Associations with devices (e.g., "Intrathecal implantable infusion pump") * Temporal context (e.g., "intraoperative during surgery") Why SNOMED CT will be used Contact More information Learn more Get SNOMED CT Information about our license and fee structure Learn more Learn more Explore the wide range of resources available to our community of practice Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. 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Opinions and perspectives on SNOMED CT and its use in digital health from thought leaders across our global community. Blog Series Opinions and perspectives on SNOMED CT and its use in digital health from thought leaders across our global community. Submit your blog idea Learn more 3 Jun 2026 Dr James Case, SNOMED International Chief Terminologist BLOG: Exploring a move from PCOS to PMOS Learn more 11 Dec 2025 Tudor Groza (Bioinformatics Institute, A*STAR & Maternal and Child Health Research Institute, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Singapore) and Ian Green (SNOMED International) Surfacing Rare Diseases Earlier: Smarter Signals from Health System Clinical Data Learn more 16 Sept 2025 Blog: SNOMED International concludes community feedback period on proposed description character limit increase and finalizes next steps Learn more 18 Mar 2025 By: Anne Randorff Højen, Alejandro Lopez Osornio & Kai Kewley Discover the SNOMED CT Implementation Demonstrators Learn more 12 Mar 2025 By: Marte Rime Bø, Norwegian Directorate of Health Learn about SNOMED CT in Norway: internal implementations and global experiences Load more Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

Imagine hospital notes transforming themselves into research-grade evidence before the night shift ends: built in Oxford, Striata, a SNOMED-powered AI Scientist ingests raw text, de-identifies it, and maps every concept to SNOMED CT (and companion vocabularies) in real time. Once structured, its multi-agent engine sweeps across diagnoses, medications, age, comorbidities, seasonal trends and workflow metrics, plotting hidden patterns, proposing testable hypotheses, running statistics and flagging bias, then hands users publication-ready reports. Early pilots, including Latvia's NHS, show Striata compresses weeks of analyst labour into minutes, turning any ward into a discovery hub without adding to workloads. By fusing large language model reasoning with SNOMED's formal logic it delivers faster scientific discovery, rapid pharmacovigilance, sharper equity audits and instant operational feedback. Back View Map Amorphous AI The Future Is Here: An AI Scientist for Every Hospital Read More Country / Region EMEA Tags Artificial intelligence, Data analytics, EHDS (European Health Data Space), Innovation, Research, Tooling Imagine hospital notes transforming themselves into research-grade evidence before the night shift ends: built in Oxford, Striata, a SNOMED-powered AI Scientist ingests raw text, de-identifies it, and maps every concept to SNOMED CT (and companion vocabularies) in real time. Once structured, its multi-agent engine sweeps across diagnoses, medications, age, comorbidities, seasonal trends and workflow metrics, plotting hidden patterns, proposing testable hypotheses, running statistics and flagging bias, then hands users publication-ready reports. Early pilots, including Latvia's NHS, show Striata compresses weeks of analyst labour into minutes, turning any ward into a discovery hub without adding to workloads. By fusing large language model reasoning with SNOMED's formal logic it delivers faster scientific discovery, rapid pharmacovigilance, sharper equity audits and instant operational feedback. Description Oxford-based Amorphous AI has developed Striata, a cutting-edge multi-agent AI system designed to autonomously transform raw clinical text into actionable insights in real-time. Striata's cooperative AI agents seamlessly perform patient data de-identification, precise SNOMED CT mapping of clinical entities, and execute automated research cycles that include: * Data Exploration ‚ Systematic and deep analysis of clinical data across demographics, timeframes, and disease states. * Dynamic Visualization ‚ Real-time graphical representations that reveal subtle or complex clinical patterns. * Hypothesis Generation ‚ Automatic identification of clinically significant associations, such as medication risks and operational inefficiencies. * Statistical Testing & Bias Detection ‚ Robust validation processes, including successful autonomous detection of intentionally hidden synthetic drug-outcome associations in a specially constructed benchmark dataset. * Automated Reporting ‚ Generation of detailed, regulator-compliant reports covering methodologies, findings, statistical rigor, and identified limitations. In this project, we generated a synthetic dataset containing ground truths, such as associations between drugs and outcomes. We will present results of this benchmark, showcasing Striata's ability to mine complex health data for insights on par with world-class research teams at a fraction of the cost. Scope SNOMED's rich semantic structure provides ideal support for sophisticated, algorithmic reasoning. Internationally recognized standard ensuring interoperability across global healthcare and regulatory bodies. Essential compatibility with EHDS and FHIR standards, enabling healthcare providers to comply seamlessly with emerging European regulations. Frequent and comprehensive updates allow for rapid integration of novel clinical insights and therapeutic interventions. How SNOMED CT will be used Canonical Encoding ‚ Clinical entities, including diagnoses, medications, procedures, and observations, are standardized to SNOMED identifiers, maintaining nuance through advanced post-coordination techniques. Ontology-Based Reasoning ‚Leverages SNOMED's semantic hierarchy and causal relationships to dynamically refine patient cohorts without human-driven rules. Quality Control with Snowstorm ‚Ensures accuracy and quality control of SNOMED mappings, automatically identifying and rectifying discrepancies following SNOMED updates. Why SNOMED CT will be used Contact More information Learn more Get SNOMED CT Information about our license and fee structure Learn more Learn more Explore the wide range of resources available to our community of practice Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

Monica Harry shares highlights of the Jan 2021 Int'l Edition Back 17 Feb 2021 Back In the Q&A below, Monica Harry, Director of Content and Mapping and part of the team at SNOMED International guided by Head of Terminology, Dr. Jim Case, answers some of the most frequently asked questions we receive about SNOMED CT and the process the organization uses to develop content and finalize each release. What would you say is the most important highlight of this latest release of SNOMED CT International Edition (January 31, 2021)? MH: For this latest release, I’d say it’s the COVID-19 vaccine-related content. We added 21 new concepts to support the vaccine administration process, which is extremely important as countries around the world ramp up their efforts to vaccinate their citizens against the virus. We also added new content reflecting the much discussed sentiment of "long COVID," a colloquial term for clinical signs that may persist after the acute COVID-19 disease. In SNOMED CT, this sentiment is represented by two concepts: "Post-acute COVID-19 (disorder) - 1119303003" and "Chronic post-COVID-19 syndrome (disorder) - 1119304009." Other important highlights include anatomy changes to support cancer synoptic reporting, a clinical documentation method that uses structured checklists to help clinicians produce more complete, consistent and valuable medical reports; and the updated concept model for allergies and adverse reaction to vaccines. As well, the new content for food insecurity and housing status, i.e., two of the factors measured as part of social care, is an important addition: SNOMED International, as part of its strategic priorities, has been working with the U.S.-based Gravity Project to ensure any Social Determinants of Health content that is internationally applicable is available for international usage. Over the past year, SNOMED International has taken a number of steps to support the fight against the global COVID-19 pandemic, and the organization continues those efforts with the vaccination content in this latest release. What do you see as the trajectory for that ongoing work over 2021? MH: This is the challenge: that every day there is new information about the virus and the way it’s mutating. That in turn affects lab testing, and at the same time, there are new vaccines being approved, manufactured, put into service and injected into humans. Then there are the outcomes of how people respond to those vaccines, which is where the content related to adverse reactions and success rates may come into play. So there are a number of areas all related to expressing those different factors and we have to ensure we have the content to do that. I’d say that’s an ongoing project that we’ll have for at least the next release, if not the whole of the next year. One of the challenges around vaccines, though, is that we do not put the brand names of drugs into SNOMED CT because brand names don’t tell you the details of products, they just give you the brand name. If I say Kleenex, for example, that doesn’t tell you if it’s a thick or thin one, if it has perfume or no perfume or if it’s hypoallergenic -- a brand name is just too broad as well as country specific. We’re working on ways to address this challenge presently so that our Members can create content that would be too granular in the International Edition, but useful to the users and citizens of their regions. How is SNOMED International addressing the issue of emerging coronavirus variants and what are the challenges from an ontological perspective? MH: In a nutshell, we’re not adding variants unless there is a clinical significance to their presence. As of this writing, the current variants of interest do not affect treatment or response to vaccination. We are monitoring the identification of new variants and are ready to add them if the clinical significance warrants it. One of SNOMED International’s strategic priorities is to support the reduction of health inequity through developing and managing social determinants of health content within SNOMED CT. What are the plans for advancing this work in the future? MH: This is a new endeavour -- to start including aspects of people’s lives that are not strictly clinical or health-related, such as housing and food, but that certainly have an impact on how people cope with disease and illness. More and more we are beginning to realize these factors are important. Unfortunately, different countries -- and even different regions within those countries -- record this information in a variety of ways, so what we’re doing is listening to and engaging in those conversations around how we harmonize this terminology. How do we all call things by the same names so we can share the information and understand each other and understand where and how we record this so we get some uniformity in reporting? It’s difficult because there are groups in countries working individually, so we have to try to bridge the gaps and get them together to have conversations. The U.S.-based Gravity Project is collating terms and names and harmonizing them within that project and sharing that information. There are similar projects elsewhere in the world working to ensure we are all using the same terms to describe things so that information can be stored in an EHR and provide a more holistic view of a patient’s life. SNOMED International is tapping into those groups to benefit from their findings. In this release, SNOMED International added a fair amount of content to support Members mapping from SNOMED CT to ICD-11. Why is this important? MH: It’s important so that in the future, we can have a map from SNOMED CT to ICD-11 for those Member countries using SNOMED CT who report in ICD; we want to enable them to do that seamlessly. In the most recent release, SNOMED CT added 500 new concepts for the purposes of supporting our Members in those efforts to map from SNOMED CT to ICD-11. So we’ve spoken about a breadth of clinical content that can be added to SNOMED CT. Can you describe the process of determining what does and doesn’t go into the international edition? MH: Our drivers for that decision-making process are multiple: one is our strategic plan set out by our Members and the organization. It’s focused on adapting to the evolving world of health care, imagining the future and planning for upcoming changes in clinical recording. We also have projects that drive content changes, such as our Quality Initiative, which is a restructuring of SNOMED CT to ensure content is in the right place. Think of it as if the documents in a filing cabinet were out of order and you wanted to refile everything in the right place so you can find it more easily when you search for something. Then we have our Content Request System, which Members who are implementing SNOMED CT and have individual requirements for changes can use to request content changes. Where can people go to find more information on the latest SNOMED CT release? MH: Please check out our latest news release for more information or write us at info@snomed.org . Have a comment about this post? We’d love to hear from you at info@snomed.org . Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

SNOClass project, commanded by Belgium National Release Center, aims at creating maps from SNOMED CT terminology to three classifications: International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), International Classification of Health Interventions (ICHI) and International Classification of Primary Care - 3rd Revision (ICPC-3). The mapping process will be semi-automated, relying on lexical and ontological analysis of both the terminology and the classifications. The suggested mappings will be evaluated by experts. This methodology step is resource and knowledge demanding and may not be compatible with the availability of experts. We present a method based on SNOMED CT intrinsic features to reduce the very large number of concepts from SNOMED CT to consider, while avoiding missed mapping opportunities. SNOMED CT has 19 high level concepts (synonym: domains) and 58 hierarchy tags. Except for (physical object) and (product), the hierarchy tags are associated only with one domain. For each of the 58 hierarchy tags we extracted the number of SNOMED CT codes (see table in Annex). Clinical domain experts chose for each target classification which SNOMED CT hierarchy tags are relevant. The resulting number of concepts may still be too high, and additional reduction strategies are considered such as starting from existing collections of frequently used lexical entries, existing mappings, and existing core sets to identify a relevant domain-specific sample of SNOMED CT concepts that can be adequately handled (mapped to the domain classification) within the constraints of a one year project, but still be relevant for testing in specific use cases. Back View Map University of Ghent (1 of 2) Selecting relevant SNOMED CT concepts to consider for a mapping to three classifications, using hierarchy (semantic) tags Read More Country / Region EMEA Tags Data analytics, Data quality, EHDS (European Health Data Space), Expression constraint language SNOClass project, commanded by Belgium National Release Center, aims at creating maps from SNOMED CT terminology to three classifications: International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), International Classification of Health Interventions (ICHI) and International Classification of Primary Care - 3rd Revision (ICPC-3). The mapping process will be semi-automated, relying on lexical and ontological analysis of both the terminology and the classifications. The suggested mappings will be evaluated by experts. This methodology step is resource and knowledge demanding and may not be compatible with the availability of experts. We present a method based on SNOMED CT intrinsic features to reduce the very large number of concepts from SNOMED CT to consider, while avoiding missed mapping opportunities. SNOMED CT has 19 high level concepts (synonym: domains) and 58 hierarchy tags. Except for (physical object) and (product), the hierarchy tags are associated only with one domain. For each of the 58 hierarchy tags we extracted the number of SNOMED CT codes (see table in Annex). Clinical domain experts chose for each target classification which SNOMED CT hierarchy tags are relevant. The resulting number of concepts may still be too high, and additional reduction strategies are considered such as starting from existing collections of frequently used lexical entries, existing mappings, and existing core sets to identify a relevant domain-specific sample of SNOMED CT concepts that can be adequately handled (mapped to the domain classification) within the constraints of a one year project, but still be relevant for testing in specific use cases. Description We present a method based on SNOMED CT features to reduce the very large number of concepts from SNOMED CT to consider, while avoiding missed mapping opportunities. Scope SNOMED CT was selected to create mappings from its concepts to three classifications: International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), International Classification of Health Interventions (ICHI) and International Classification of Primary Care - 3rd Revision (ICPC-3). How SNOMED CT will be used SNOMED CT is at the core of the research, its terminological features analyzed and exploited for semi-automated mapping. Why SNOMED CT will be used Contact More information Learn more Get SNOMED CT Information about our license and fee structure Learn more Learn more Explore the wide range of resources available to our community of practice Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

SNOMED CT COVID-19 content added to the Global Patient Set Back 12 Mar 2020 Back Since the date of issue, this information is now out of date and has been archived. It has been made available for reference. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization formally characterized Coronavirus, COVID-19, as a global pandemic and health systems globally are continuing their efforts to manage the outbreak. SNOMED International recently announced an interim release of the SNOMED CT International Edition outside of its customary release cycle to include updated COVID-19 content as a means of lending its support to the ongoing global effort. Without reservation, SNOMED International will also include this COVID-19 content, in its recently released Global Patient Set (GPS), a managed list of existing SNOMED CT unique identifiers, fully specified names (FSN), preferred terms in international English, and status flags, made available at no cost to users. Please note, this content will appear as part of the GPS in the next release in September 2020, but is now available and can be used under the same open license, (the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License). Following the announcement from WHO regarding the Emergency use of ICD-10 codes for the COVID-19 disease outbreak, the map record is also included in the March 2020 interim SNOMED CT International Edition release. Learn more about the GPS and access provided resources on SNOMED International’s Global Patient Set information page . For more information, contact info@snomed.org . Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

AMA and IHTSDO Announce Collaborative Health Terminology Agreement Back 28 Oct 2016 Back Since the date of issue, this information is now out of date and has been archived. It has been made available for reference. The American Medical Association (AMA) and the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO) announced today a new collaborative agreement to coordinate on the design and development of their respective coding and terminology products. By working together, the organizations seek to address the health system’s emerging need for greater integration between proprietary codes sets in support of interoperability and health care data analytics. AMA’s Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) is the most widely accepted medical nomenclature used to report medical procedures and services under public and private health insurance programs in the United States. IHTSDO’s SNOMED CT® is the global language of healthcare, an international standard that ensures semantically accurate clinical terminology for consistent use across health systems and services. The AMA and IHTSDO recognize the complementary nature of their code sets and the critical role they play in health care delivery and administration. By working in tandem, this new collaboration will produce valuable tools for physicians, hospitals, payers and others to organize vital health care data. Additionally, the AMA and IHTSDO will collaborate to promote broader adoption of their content products; share tools and expertise related to the development and maintenance of their respective standards; and improve current content to better support existing and emerging uses of health data. “We are excited about this new work,” said IHTSDO CEO Don Sweete. “This new agreement focuses on specific projects to develop products that will benefit from the granularity and sophisticated structure of SNOMED CT, and the broad utility and adoption of CPT.” "IHTSDO and the AMA view this collaboration as an important step toward increasing the coordination and integration of our terminology products to shape a better health care system,” said AMA CEO and Executive Vice President James L. Madara, M.D. “We intend to use this collaboration as a foundation to achieve our shared goals of increased responsiveness to market needs and greater innovation through improved interoperability among ours and related terminologies." Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe