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SNOMED International and The Croatian Ministry of Health are pleased to announce that the Republic of Croatia has joined SNOMED International.
With a population of nearly 4 million, Croatia is the latest European country to join SNOMED International since the March 2022 announcement that the European Union (EU) will provide its Member States with 60 per cent funding towards SNOMED International membership until 2027, via the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA).
“Highly developed with a fully integrated, globalized economy, Croatia made eHealth a priority in its 2021-2027 national health development plan, which is consistent with our comprehensive healthcare reform," says Croatian health Minister Vili Beroš on the occasion of Croatia joining SNOMED International.
The goals of the strategy include 36 measures in five categories: improved healthy lifestyles and more effective disease prevention; improvement of the health system; improvement of the model of care for key health challenges; making the health system a desirable place to work; and improving the financial sustainability of the health system.
SNOMED CT, the world’s most comprehensive health terminology, is developed, maintained and distributed by SNOMED International, a not-for-profit, member-owned and driven international organization founded in 2007 by nine charter nations.
The clinical terminology will play an important role in supporting Croatia in achieving its eHealth goals, particularly those pertaining to improving the healthcare system by supporting greater interoperability and by enabling secondary uses of clinical data such as research and data analysis, providing more insights into patients and care delivery. Moving beyond national borders and connecting to the emerging European Health Data Space, SNOMED CT is poised and positioned to strengthen the secure exchange and interoperability of health data across Europe.
“It is encouraging to see the positive impact of the European funding commitment for SNOMED International membership as it contributes to the connectedness of the European digital health landscape,” says SNOMED International CEO Don Sweete. “Joining an active coalition of SNOMED CT adopters, Croatia’s membership recognizes the benefits clinical terminology can produce for the nation’s and broader European Union’s citizens and health systems with a commitment to implementing SNOMED.”
“Although the Croatian health system has been one of the leaders among the EU countries in the cross-border exchange of health data, more precisely e-prescriptions and patient summaries, the use of SNOMED CT at the national level will lower barriers for Croatia to join any subsequent EU level initiatives aiming at cross-border exchange and reuse of health data,” says Croatian Minister Beroš.
“Recognition of the reform progress of the Croatian health system by the EU and global experts once again confirms that this Government and the health administration are on the right path towards improving the health picture of the nation. All of the above underlines our reform slogan ‘Health comes first’, which most vividly expresses what we are striving for”, concludes Minister Beroš.
To learn more about how SNOMED CT can enable achievement of digital health priorities, visit snomed.org.
Media inquiries
The Croatian Ministry of Health
Email: pitajtenas@miz.hr
SNOMED International
Email: comms@snomed.org