Following over a year of consultation with our Members and stakeholders, SNOMED International has concluded its review of the proposal to increase the maximum potential length of Fully Specified Name (FSN) and Synonym descriptions in SNOMED CT.
Purpose
The purpose of this update is to inform the SNOMED International Community of Practice, Advisory and Project Groups about the feedback received regarding this proposal, and the agreed next steps.
Background
In 2024, SNOMED International initiated a consultation process to understand the impact of increasing the maximum character length of FSN and Synonym descriptions from 255 characters to 4096 characters. Over the past year, briefing notes were circulated and input from Members was carefully considered.
Results of the Consultation
The consultation phase concluded with broad support for the proposed change. No objections have been raised since that time, and Members who responded confirmed their acceptance of the proposed transition date of 1 July 2026.
In line with established practice, SNOMED International will:
Execute the transition on the agreed date,
Issue scheduled communications to provide visibility of the changes and confirm completion once implemented, and
Publish a list of International Edition Descriptions that have been increased over the original 255 characters.
SNOMED International Member National Release Centres (NRCs) are requested to share these communications with national and regional end users and provide any required support.
Next Steps
The consultation will be marked as formally closed.
SNOMED International will issue reminder communications in January 2026 ahead of the transition.
NRCs will engage national and regional stakeholders to ensure readiness.
The change will be implemented in the 1 July 2026 International Edition release, with updates applied to the DescriptionType file in the Metadata folder.
The change will apply to all SNOMED International products. After the initial International Edition transition, Managed Service extensions and derivative products will gradually adopt the new standard.
Post-transition, SNOMED International will:
Confirm that the new description length maximum has been applied, and
Publish the list of International Edition descriptions that have been increased.
NRCs will be engaged to share this information with their end users.
We encourage Members and stakeholders to review this information and take any actions necessary to prepare end users for the upcoming changes.
Please contact info@snomed.org with any questions.