For more information on SNOMED International's Clinical Reference Groups, please review our clinical resources. 

To enable continuous development of SNOMED CT, it is critical that its clinical content is relevant and up to date. To do this, SNOMED International relies on input from clinicians and clinical groups internationally.

Given the significance of this relationship, SNOMED International, in consultation with its Healthcare Professional Coordination Group, made a decision to cease using the existing Special Interest Groups (SIGs) approach for clinical engagement along with a move to a virtually supported model. All clinical engagement activities undertaken by SNOMED International’s Clinical Engagement Team will flag prospective contributing contacts to a relevant Virtual Clinical Group.

Why should clinicians continue their contributions as SIGs transition to Clinical Reference Groups? Engaging via Clinical Reference Groups provides clinicians with a mechanism to ensure that the content required by clinicians is included in SNOMED CT quickly and accurately.

The Clinical Reference Groups model supports collaborations with external partners (professional groups and organizations, etc.) through the use of project groups where the collaboration has a specified deliverable, before transitioning to an editorial group to provide ongoing clinical validation.

The model of Clinical Reference Groups will also support specifically focused work, bringing together groups with a common interest such as developing or migrating to a SNOMED CT based registry that is needed internationally.

The SIGs will formally retire April 13, 2017 with the launch of the Clinical Reference Groups.

Please visit the Clinical Participation homepage to learn more, or email info@snomed.org with your questions regarding approach and participation.