Lithuania

The Lithuanian Library of Medicine is also the National Release Centre responsible for distribution of SNOMED CT® in Lithuania, as well as translation of SNOMED CT® into the Lithuanian language. 

The development of a Lithuanian eHealth system involves political, organizational, behavioral and psychological efforts to achieve better quality healthcare using information technologies. The main goal of the Lithuanian eHealth system is to ensure continuity of care by improved access to patient information and assured information exchange system between institutions.

The Lithuanian NRC contributes to the effective e-health services by distributing Lithuanian and International release of SNOMED CT. In 2012 Lithuanian NRC prepared the investment project “The creation of uniform medical terms classifier for the development of quality e-services in health care institutions”.

National translation project of 40,000 SNOMED CT concepts was realized in May of 2015, during which:

• 40,000 SNOMED CT concepts have been translated into Lithuanian;

• SNOMED CT IS have been developed;

• SNOMED CT use case has been implemented in one of the largest Lithuanian outpatient clinics with the aim to code vaccination records and certificates of child health examination in order to transfer these records to central e-health information system.

Since then the Lithuanian NRC deals with organizing medical terminology translation into the Lithuanian language, transferring it into Lithuanian SNOMED CT IS, sharing information about the SNOMED CT standard, and advising health care institutions on related matters.

More information about SNOMED CT in Lithuania can be accessed here: www.snomed.lt