Becoming a SNOMED International Member is the latest step for France, a country of more than 67 million inhabitants, in its efforts to become a global leader in digital health. France will join a community of 48 Members globally. Its SNOMED International membership builds on the country’s eHealth acceleration strategy announced in January 2021.

It also supports the “France relance” recovery plan to accelerate the ecological, industrial and social transformations of the country, as well as the country’s 2023-2027 digital health roadmap, which seeks to employ digital technology to improve and transform its healthcare system.

The French Agence du Numerique en Santé (ANS) will serve as the country’s National Release Centre for SNOMED CT. As a Member, France will also be represented on SNOMED International’s General Assembly and the organization’s Member Forum governance bodies.

France is the 22nd of the 27 European Union (EU) countries to join SNOMED International. It is also the fourth following the announcement of EU funding for member countries wishing to adopt SNOMED CT, a comprehensive, multilingual healthcare terminology created for use by healthcare professionals to capture the care of individuals in an electronic health record and facilitate sharing, decision support and analytics, to support safe and effective health information exchange.

Building on extensive translation efforts

France will benefit from the extensive translation work already completed by the SNOMED International French Translation User Group. The group, which also includes members from Belgium, Canada, Switzerland and Luxembourg, released the first SNOMED CT common French translation in April 2020 as an option to be published as part of the national edition of any Member involved in producing the translation. This group has served as a model to other countries that share the same language and want to similarly develop translations of the terminology.

« The development of interoperability is one of the priorities of the e-health French roadmap. Joining SNOMED International allows France to enhance its health and social Terminologies offer. Being a member also grants the French ecosystem the ability to join and collaborate with the SNOMED CT international community. »

SNOMED International CEO Don Sweete concurs, adding that France’s membership will augment both the utility and reach of SNOMED CT across Europe. “France has clearly demonstrated its commitment to improving the health and welfare of its citizens through the application of digital health, and its decision to become a SNOMED International Member is an important step in that direction,” he says. “Although there have long been a number of affiliate license users in France, membership means the country can provide access to SNOMED CT – and its global community – to all its commercial and non-commercial users,” he adds.

Media Inquiries

Julie Messier

Agence du Numérique en Santé

Email: julie.messier@esante.gouv.fr

Kelly Kuru

SNOMED International

Email: comms@snomed.org