Since the date of issue, this information is now out of date and has been archived. It has been made available for reference.

SNOMED CT is a multinational and multilingual terminology equipped with a built-in framework to support the representation of different languages and dialects.  The French Translation Project Group is pleased to announce the first release of the SNOMED CT common French translation as the newest addition to this growing collection.  

Throughout the years, a number of partial French translations have been produced locally by Members including Belgium, Canada, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and by SNOMED CT affiliate, PHAST from France.  Another partial translation, known as the “French Starter Set”, had also been produced by the Swiss Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève on behalf of SNOMED International.

In the summer of 2018, the French Translation Project Group was initiated to encourage a more effective French translation process, avoiding redundant work and linguistic discrepancies, and developing an agreed set of global editorial principles. 

In less than two years, the number of French terms available within the translation has now increased to more than 77,000 including recently translated COVID-19 concepts, closing the gap that structured data can play in French language health care settings. 

Translation has been accomplished through a mixture of Members and affiliate participation, specifically:

• Service public fédéral - Santé publique, sécurité de la chaîne alimentaire et environnement - Belgique (www.health.belgium.be/) 

• Inforoute Santé du Canada / Canada Health Infoway (https://infocentral.infoway-inforoute.ca/en/standards/canadian)

• Agence eSanté Luxembourg (www.esante.lu/portal/fr/)

• eHealth Suisse (www.e-health-suisse.ch/), Hôpitaux universitaires de Genève (www.unige.ch/medecine/simed/en/),  Haute école de gestion de Genève (https://www.hesge.ch/heg/)

• PHAST - France (www.phast.fr) 

At this point in time the common French translation is not distributed by SNOMED International, but rather as an option to be published as part of a national edition of any Member involved in the production of this translation.  On March 31, 2020, Inforoute Santé du Canada was the first among the French Translation Project Group to release the common French translation as part of their March 2020 SNOMED CT Canadian Edition release. 

Also effective March 31, 2020, PHAST has included the common French translation in its FHIR terminology server, STS, available for testing and also leveraged by its French browser of SNOMED CT available at http://visionneusecioct.phast.fr/

For more information, please contact the Chair of the French Translation Project Group, Francois Macary (contact@phast.fr) or Inforoute Santé du Canada / Canada Health Infoway(standards@infoway-inforoute.ca).