SNOMED International is pleased to welcome Mongolia as the most recent Member to join our global community.
Mongolia, an East Asian country with a population of 3.5 million, is the 12th Asia Pacific country to join SNOMED International, the not-for-profit organization that owns, administers and develops SNOMED CT. Membership enables the country-wide use of SNOMED CT, a comprehensive, multilingual healthcare terminology created for use by healthcare professionals that enables the care of individuals to be captured in electronic health records, facilitating information sharing, decision support and analytics for safe and effective health information exchange.
The Mongolia Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Digital Development and Communications, in collaboration with Asia eHealth Information Network (AeHIN), UNICEF Mongolia, and UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office (EAPRO), recently held a Digital Health Convergence Workshop to discuss and advance the digital transformation of Mongolia’s healthcare sector. The outcomes of the workshop included the development of the country’s draft National Digital Health Strategy and a detailed roadmap for future actions.
Additionally, a recent Digital Health Landscape Assessment, a strategic tool that countries and governments can use to navigate and assess their digital health transformation, found that Mongolia has already established a strong Information Communications Technology (ICT) ecosystem. Upon completion of the assessment, the tool recommended continued investment in non-ICT enablers (such as improved internet connectivity) to ensure longterm successful digital transformation.
Mongolia currently uses some international health data standards, such as ICD10 and DICOM, to support data exchange across systems. With a commitment to strengthen clinical information exchange by implementing SNOMED CT, the country will make even greater strides toward enabling interoperability.
“Embracing SNOMED CT is a vital step towards a unified, accurate, and efficient healthcare system,” says Myagmarulzii Enkhbaatar, Head of Digital Development, Health Data Division, Ministry of Health in Mongolia. “By integrating this comprehensive clinical terminology, we pave the way for better patient outcomes, seamless data exchange, and empowered clinical decision-making. Together, we build a healthier future."
“Every country and every culture is unique,” says SNOMED International CEO Don Sweete. “The beauty of implementing an international clinical data standard such as SNOMED CT is how it enables Member countries to tailor their health terminology to meet the unique needs of their health strategies to benefit their citizens, by supporting structured data exchange across health systems in a standardized way. I’m really excited to see how Mongolia will implement SNOMED CT to achieve its goals and deliver on its healthcare commitments to its citizens.”