SNOMED International is pleased to announce the release and inclusion of the Nutrition Care Process Terminology (NCPT) Nutrition Reference Set in the April 2024 International Edition of SNOMED CT. This release enables dietitians to systematically report their nutrition practice outcomes — resulting in high-quality nutrition care using a standardized quality improvement process to support care and effective decision-making, as well as to inform nutrition education and health policy.

The result of a 2021 collaboration between SNOMED International and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (the Academy), the reference set is based on NCPT 2020. 

SNOMED CT is a comprehensive, multilingual healthcare terminology created for use by healthcare professionals to capture the care of individuals in an electronic health record and facilitate sharing, decision support and analytics, to support safe and effective health information exchange.

The NCPT supports the Academy’s Nutrition Care Process, a systematic approach to providing high-quality nutrition care that includes nutrition assessment, diagnosis, intervention and monitoring/evaluation. 

Dr James T. Case, Chief Terminologist at SNOMED International, says, “since signing the collaboration agreement in mid-2021, subject matter experts from both organizations have ensured that nutrition remains connected to the wider health information landscape globally, that SNOMED CT continues to adequately reflect global nutrition practice, and that information collected using NCPT can link to SNOMED CT encoded records and be shared with other healthcare professionals to support patient care. 

“The inclusion of nutritional content in SNOMED CT contributes to realizing a single global language of health, but it also supports patient care delivery, usage for research purposes and participation in health policy making,” Dr. Case adds.

On the SNOMED International side, the NCPT Project Group, led by the Academy with input from global experts, spearheaded the work of the collaboration.

“Integrating nutrition care process terminology in SNOMED CT is a major milestone for the nutrition and dietetics profession as it recognizes the high quality of care that dietitians provide in identifying and treating patients with malnutrition,” says registered dietitian nutritionist and 2023-2024 Academy President Lauri Wright. “The publication of the NCPT is the result of two decades of work to encourage rigorous research and improve nutrition outcomes.”  

“The integration of the NCPT into SNOMED CT also prevents the disconnection of nutrition content from the larger health information landscape as dietitians do not practice in isolation, but alongside many other disciplines,” says Elaine Wooler, Senior Terminologist at SNOMED International and lead terminologist working on this project. “Another benefit of the incorporation of the NCPT into the International Edition of SNOMED CT is that it enables and facilitates our growing understanding of the importance of nutrition and diet in human health in general and in many specific health conditions.”

The NCPT reference set will also be included in the free-for-use Global Patient Set, which SNOMED International releases annually. The next release of the SNOMED NCPT reference is scheduled for 2025 and will contain the complete NCPT.  

For more information on the collaboration between the two organizations, view the 2021 news release. Click here for more information on the NCPT reference set.

*The Nutrition Care Process Terminology Project Group has completed its work aligning the content of Nutrition Care Process Terminology (NCPT) to SNOMED CT, facilitating the access to NCPT in SNOMED enabled systems. The Nutrition and Dietetics Clinical Reference Group, led by the Academy, will be responsible for the development of a SNOMED CT reference set, which will support the NCPT related content availability to all SCT users globally, with a supporting clinical implementation guide.

About the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

Representing more than 112,000 credentialed nutrition and dietetics practitioners, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is the world’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals. The Academy is committed to improving health and advancing the profession of dietetics through research, education and advocacy. 

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/