South Africa

South Africa, a country of more than 63 million, joined SNOMED International in May 2026, taking a major step forward toward realizing its digital health strategy.

The decision followed the country’s 2024 announcement that it would introduce new health terminological systems and classifications for use within the national health information system, including SNOMED CT, alongside other international standards. It is a significant milestone not only for South Africa, but for the broader African region.

Ms Milani Wolmarans, who has led this work from the National Department of Health, notes that "South Africa's membership of SNOMED International marks an important step in our digital health journey. A shared clinical language across our public, private, academic, and civil society sectors will support better-informed clinical decisions, more reliable health information exchange and improved patient care. We look forward to contributing to, and learning from, the international SNOMED community."

SNOMED CT complements South Africa’s standards implementation roadmap and supports detailed clinical documentation and semantic interoperability at the point of care. The Director-General of the National Department of Health has gazetted the intention to introduce a set of health terminological systems for use in electronic health records and health information exchange, including SNOMED CT alongside complementary classifications from the WHO Family of International Classifications.

South Africa's membership extends SNOMED CT access across all health sector entities, including public and private providers, academic, research, and civil society institutions. The country’s National Department of Health is establishing a SNOMED CT National Release Centre and a National Terminological Mapping Service; the Department of Health Clinical Coding Advisory Technical Working Group will co-ordinate implementation.