A slice of SNOMED CT, the GPS is a managed collection of existing reference sets, available to any user at no cost. It's positioned to support cross border interoperability and enhanced digital maturity as users move towards decision support and full analytics capabilities in their respective strategies. 

Since its first release in September 2019, the GPS has capped off 2020 with 650+ downloads of the GPS from a variety of users worldwide.

The GPS offers clinical content across dentistry, renal, family & general practice and nursing areas, and includes IHE, DICOM and HL7 International Patient Summary (IPS) domains and activities.  Of particular relevance, the IPS is a minimal and non-exhaustive patient summary dataset containing essential healthcare information for use in the unscheduled, cross-border care scenario, as well as for local, regional and other care scenarios.  SNOMED CT content supports the HL7 IPS and also the terminology to underpin the CEN European Standard for the Patient Summary.  Through the GPS, these SNOMED CT terms are available free for use in HL7 CDA R2 implementations and FHIR IPS Implementations Guides worldwide, supporting the joint goal of cross border sharing and reuse of information. 

With the many events transpiring in 2020, among them was the introduction of a variety of new SNOMED CT content to the GPS.

COVID-19 and related SNOMED CT content

In terms of newly added content, in March 2020, the World Health Organization formally characterized Coronavirus, COVID-19, as a global pandemic and health systems worldwide are continuing their efforts to manage the outbreak.  COVID-19 content included in the January 2020 release was subsequently updated in March 2020 with SNOMED International issuing an elective release falling outside of its customary release cycle.  January and updated March COVID-19 content has been added to the scope of the September 2020 GPS release to support the recording and sharing of healthcare data during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Existing and relevant SNOMED CT content has also been added to the GPS and can be referenced at http://snomed.org/covid-19.

Social Determinants of Health

SNOMED International is also committed to supporting the reduction of health inequity through developing and managing social determinants of health content within SNOMED CT’s clinical terminology.  To maximize accessibility of this content, SNOMED International has also included a large amount of social determinants of health content within the September 2020 GPS release.

Looking forward

As the global situation persists and new SNOMED CT content is developed, SNOMED International has developed processes to assess relevant content for inclusion in the GPS.  

Offered under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License, the GPS is available to any interested party at no cost, simply by visiting SNOMED International’s GPS information page and registering your use.

Additional resources including use cases, and implementation guidance are also located on the GPS information page.