IHE International Back IHE International Standards Partner In April 2019, IHE International and SNOMED International formally announced a license agreement encouraging data consistency and interoperability across international boundaries, with benefits for clinical care, research and operational efficiency. Additional information Through this agreement, the organizations have agreed on the production of a SNOMED CT IHE Set which includes a jointly decided upon set of SNOMED CT concepts and identifiers within IHE profiles. By placing the SNOMED CT codes referenced in IHE profiles under a free international license, the current agreement reduces incentives for national groups to specify variant code sets based on other terminologies. The SNOMED CT value sets specified in IHE profiles are selected to ensure data consistency and interoperability in support of a variety of clinical use cases. IHE profiles are developed in eleven active clinical and operational domains. SNOMED CT value sets referenced in these profiles are typically used to bind coded values to content in structured documents, discrete data elements and metadata. Approximately 30 IHE profiles reference SNOMED CT value sets as of the date of this agreement. Over the course of the 5 year agreement, the SNOMED CT IHE Set will be updated officially annually, taking into account updates to the IHE profiles which are performed annually in each IHE domain. Thirty-seven profiles within 6 domains currently fall within the scope of the agreement. Phast-Services, based in Paris, France, will serve as experts on behalf of IHE to maintain the SNOMED CT IHE Set. The IHE freeset is available as part of SNOMED International's Global Patient Set. The GPS is a managed collection of existing reference sets, available to any user at no cost. 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. Press Release: April 2019: SNOMED International and IHE International forge inaugural agreement jointly supporting optimal patient care Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

SNOMED CT MRCM - Beta Release Available Back 14 Feb 2017 Back Since the date of issue, this information is now out of date and has been archived. It has been made available for reference. The SNOMED CT MRCM represents the rules in the SNOMED CT concept model in a form that can be read by a computer and applied to test that concept definitions and expressions comply with these rules. The MRCM may be used for a variety of purposes, including the authoring and validation of SNOMED CT concepts, expressions, expression constraints and queries, natural language processing (NLP) and binding terminology to information models to support querying and interoperability. For more information about the MRCM, please visit http://snomed.org/mrcm. Members can download the MRCM Beta release package via the MLDS distribution site. Others may request access by contacting the Release Management Team by email ( info@snomed.org ), with the subject "Release Management Team - MRCM Beta access request". The SNOMED CT MRCM Beta release notes are available here. Please note that the Beta release package is distributed for evaluation purposes only. It must not be used in production clinical systems or in clinical settings. Subject to feedback on the Beta release, the MRCM data will be included in the July 2017 SNOMED CT International Release. To comment on the MRCM Beta release, please click on the Feedback button at the bottom of this MRCM page. All feedback must be submitted by Friday 31st March 2017. Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

Diabetic patients require constant monitoring and foot screening on hospital admission by clinicians to identify injuries that might lead to infection and ulceration and to prevent progression of foot disease. Studies show that the correct management of diabetic foot patients (DFPs) in the UK could lead to a decrease in amputation rates, hospital admission avoidance, and a drastic reduction in the NHS cost of managing patients with diabetic foot problems1. The aim of this work is to develop and deploy a fully automated, API-based dashboard system that supports management of DFPs at Barts Health NHS Trust. Our algorithm extracts a list of patients from the Trust Data Warehouse who have been admitted to the hospital. For each patient, the free-text clinical notes created in the past 6 months are identified and processed with CLiX, a commercial natural language processing tool developed by Clinithink which uses post coordinated SNOMED-CT expressions to extract clinical terms from unstructured clinical notes. Demographic, clinical, and automated risk assessment data are presented in a secure and customizable dashboard. Preliminary results at the Royal London Hospital in east London showed that, in one month, the dashboard correctly identified 42 DFPs. Of these, 33 received an immediate clinical intervention and 9 had no recorded intervention. There were 7 incorrect identifications, mostly involving gestational diabetes, congenital conditions or non-diabetic patients. Our data-driven clinical tool continues to identify inpatients with diabetes and shows strong potential for improving early clinical intervention for DFPs. 1 - Guest JF et al., 2018. Back View Map Bart's Health NHS Trust (3 of 3) A SNOMED driven clinical dashboard system to support the identification and management of diabetic patients with possible foot disease in a large academic health system in east London Read More Country / Region EMEA Tags Artificial intelligence, Clinical Practice, Data analytics, Implementation, Research Diabetic patients require constant monitoring and foot screening on hospital admission by clinicians to identify injuries that might lead to infection and ulceration and to prevent progression of foot disease. Studies show that the correct management of diabetic foot patients (DFPs) in the UK could lead to a decrease in amputation rates, hospital admission avoidance, and a drastic reduction in the NHS cost of managing patients with diabetic foot problems1. The aim of this work is to develop and deploy a fully automated, API-based dashboard system that supports management of DFPs at Barts Health NHS Trust. Our algorithm extracts a list of patients from the Trust Data Warehouse who have been admitted to the hospital. For each patient, the free-text clinical notes created in the past 6 months are identified and processed with CLiX, a commercial natural language processing tool developed by Clinithink which uses post coordinated SNOMED-CT expressions to extract clinical terms from unstructured clinical notes. Demographic, clinical, and automated risk assessment data are presented in a secure and customizable dashboard. Preliminary results at the Royal London Hospital in east London showed that, in one month, the dashboard correctly identified 42 DFPs. Of these, 33 received an immediate clinical intervention and 9 had no recorded intervention. There were 7 incorrect identifications, mostly involving gestational diabetes, congenital conditions or non-diabetic patients. Our data-driven clinical tool continues to identify inpatients with diabetes and shows strong potential for improving early clinical intervention for DFPs. 1 - Guest JF et al., 2018. Description This project aims to develop a simple, user-friendly dashboard system to support clinicians at Barts Health NHS Trust in managing diabetic foot patients. The system helps identify patients who are currently in the Trust and highlights diabetic patients who may be at risk of developing foot infections or ulcers. The system extracts structured and free text information from patient EHRs, which are routinely exported from Oracle Millennium and stored in the Trust's Data Warehouse. The extracted notes are then sent to CLiX, a commercial natural language processing tool developed by Clinithink which uses SNOMED-CT to identify clinically relevant text and match to cohorts of interest. Patient clinical summaries with previously defined risk stratification obtained from CLIX are then displayed in easy-to-understand charts and tables that staff can personalise. By making it easier to spot issues early, the tool helps healthcare providers improve care, reduce the number of amputations, and save NHS resources. Scope SNOMED CT is a standardized terminology system able to identify and categorize clinical concepts and key terms related to diabetic foot disease. This not only improves the quality of data extracted from unstructured medical notes but also facilitates interoperability across different systems in healthcare. We used SNOMED CT because we wanted to extract granular, relevant clinical information consistently and comprehensively from clinical reports. By using SNOMED CT, we are able to align with national and international standards, making our solution scalable and adaptable to various clinical environments and a range of clinical conditions. How SNOMED CT will be used We used SNOMED CT Expression Constraint Language (ECL) to define cohorts of patients with diabetes and diabetic foot disease. These expressions are used by the CLiX NLP tool to identify and categorise relevant patients based on post coordinated SNOMED expressions extracted from unstructured clinical notes. Granular symptom information is automatically extracted by the NLP tool in SNOMED CT format. This level of detail allows us to * stratify patients based on their risk of developing diabetic foot disease, supporting early intervention and more personalised care pathways * generate a large SNOMED CT coded dataset used for analytics projects to better understand patients with diabetic foot disease in east London Finally, confirmed cases identified using the dashboard have the appropriate SNOMED CT code added to the patient's electronic care record by the clinical team. This ensures the information is available for future care and planning decisions, embedding the tool's outputs into routine clinical workflows. Why SNOMED CT will be used Contact More information Learn more Get SNOMED CT Information about our license and fee structure Learn more Learn more Explore the wide range of resources available to our community of practice Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

SNOMED International establishes a new User Support Reference Group to support and address SNOMED CT implementation Back 18 Jan 2019 Back With use of SNOMED CT on the rise internationally, SNOMED International has responded to requests for implementation support with the creation of the User Support Reference Group. The purpose of the Group is three-fold: To identify implementation issues and discuss resolutions To enable discussion on implementation best practices and user perspectives about SNOMED CT implementation. To provide a channel for a more proactive and responsive support. Geared at SNOMED CT Implementation course graduates, Member country representatives, advanced end users, and vendors, the User Support Reference Group will collect and better understand user’s implementation experiences with the goal of developing potential solutions. Scheduled to meet on a quarterly basis, the agenda of the reference group will be topic based in nature and place emphasis on user presentations. The group’s scope will include implementation use cases and techniques, release updates, and other topics such as maintenance, natural language processing, and data analytics, etc. The SNOMED International Education Team will provide education guidance to the group as requested. Interested in Participating? The User Support Reference Group will hold an overview webinar at 11:00 UTC on 28. February. Register for the webinar on the User Support Reference Group Confluence page . For more information on the User Support Reference Group, contact info@snomed.org . Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

RACSEL collaboration strengthens digital health transformation and interoperability across Latin America and the Caribbean Back 17 Oct 2024 Back SNOMED International and the Chile-based National Center for Health Information Systems ( Centro Nacional en Sistemas de Información en Salud - CENS ) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to strengthen and support digital health transformation and enable regional healthcare interoperability in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). CENS is the executing agency of RACSEL (Latin American and Caribbean Digital Health Network). The MOU positions SNOMED International as a strategic partner to RACSEL, a collaborative network across LAC. Collaboration goals The goal of the MOU is to support the implementation of regional projects to strengthen the capacity of LAC countries in health management by promoting digital transformation in health, focusing on developing a regional agreement for cross-border digital health services, and strengthening the health information exchange model implemented in the region through the adoption of standards, architectures, governance and protocols, and data exchange and interoperability protocols. SNOMED International’s role in the collaboration will include supporting health data interoperability and the implementation of SNOMED CT and other health data standards and providing education through webinars and other educational offerings. The organization will also participate in various activities to help promote health data interoperability initiatives across the LAC region. The organizations will work together to develop guidelines and protocols for the exchange of public health data and care information, including semantic and syntactic components, and to support participating countries in their adoption. They will also collaborate on developing architectural components and security frameworks for the exchange of healthcare, public health and telehealth data, and on identifying other areas where effective and practical cooperation may be possible. “The alliance with SNOMED International will allow us to consolidate our efforts in the exchange of health information,” said Alejandra Piermarini, the coordinator of the RACSEL network. “This will not only improve the quality of health services in the region, but also strengthen our capacity to respond to public health emergencies," she added. For Ms Piermarini, "interoperability and regional collaboration are essential to transform digital health in Latin America and the Caribbean.” Regarding the agreement with SNOMED, the executive director of CENS, May Chomali, stated that: “As CENS, we are committed to the continuous improvement of health systems in Latin America and the Caribbean. That is why we are pleased to establish this collaboration with SNOMED, because with its global experience and our regional initiatives we will more strongly promote innovation and interoperability in digital health in our region, which has major health challenges.” SNOMED International CEO Don Sweete describes the agreement as another step toward realizing the promise of digital health globally and a complementary addition to a number of projects in digitally maturing regions that the organization has participated in over the past few years, such as our work with the Bahmni Coalition . As a result of that initiative to integrate SNOMED CT into the Bahmni Electronic Medical Record , which is designed for use in low-resource, digitally maturing regions, clinicians, researchers and hospital administrators can use SNOMED CT in their health facilities to record diagnosis and other clinical data, as well as for reporting and Clinical Decision Support use-cases. “SNOMED International has much to contribute to the RACSEL and CENS collaboration,” Don Sweete said. “We look forward to harnessing our knowledge and expertise to support our efforts with CENS in RACSEL to enable health data interoperability throughout the Latin American and Caribbean regions.” SNOMED International offers a number of products and services for our Spanish-speaking Members and other users, including the Spanish language version of the SNOMED CT International Edition, which is released twice a year; educational offerings such as the Spanish Foundations in SNOMED CT course; and an online space where users can communicate with other Spanish speakers and share their knowledge and expertise. Additionally, the organization makes available at no cost a number of other open products and services, including the Global Patient Set , a managed collection of existing SNOMED CT reference sets; the International Patient Summary Terminology , an electronic health record extract containing essential healthcare information for use in the unscheduled, cross-border care scenario, as well as for local, regional and other care scenarios; educational resources and webinars ; numerous reference subsets and maps to and from SNOMED CT to other code systems, classifications or terminologies; and tools and software to support SNOMED CT adoption and use. About RACSEL The Latin American and Caribbean Digital Health Network (RACSEL) is a collaborative initiative that brings together countries from Latin America and the Caribbean. Its main objective is to promote digital transformation in the health sector. RACSEL aims to facilitate the sharing of digital health experiences and knowledge across the region. It also seeks to promote the use of standards, tools, technologies and best practices, focusing on cross-border interoperability. The network is made up of 15 countries. Visit racsel.org for more information. About CENS CENS aims to improve people's health care by promoting and adopting information technologies in the public and private sectors. To accomplish its mission, it promotes interoperability and the creation of an enabling environment by energizing the ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship in digital health, promoting the development of human capital, and certifying platforms and digital solutions to health needs. CENS has worked as the executive agency supporting RACSEL, leading the implementation of LACPASS , a regional project involving 16 countries to achieve cross-border interoperability that aims to reduce gaps in digital health, in the LAC region. CENS is currently implementing a second project with the goal of creating a secondary data space for use in epidemiological surveillance. Countries that are participating in the projects are also SNOMED International Member countries (Argentina , Chile , El Salvador , Jamaica and Uruguay ); SNOMED International collaboration partners HL7 International and the World Health Organization are also CENS strategic partners. Visit cens.cl for more information. Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

SNOMED International and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics formalize collaboration agreement Back 29 Jul 2021 Back LONDON and CHICAGO, Jul. 29, 2021 -- SNOMED International is pleased to announce a new collaboration agreement with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics to include the Academy’s Nutrition Care Process Terminology ( NCPT ) version 2020 in the International Edition of SNOMED CT. The NCPT supports the Academy’s Nutrition Care Process, which is a systematic approach to providing high-quality nutrition care that includes nutrition assessment, diagnosis, intervention and monitoring/evaluation. The Academy’s Nutrition Care Process Research Outcomes Committee developed and maintains the NCPT. The agreement formalizes the work SNOMED and the Academy have been doing since 2017 when representatives from the Academy and other nutrition and dietetics associations around the world requested the inclusion of the NCPT in the SNOMED CT International Edition. SNOMED and the Academy established the NCPT Clinical Project Group , a SNOMED International project group which includes representatives from both organizations along with international users to guide and facilitate the work. SNOMED International is the nonprofit organization that owns and maintains SNOMED CT , the world’s most comprehensive clinical terminology with more than 350,000 concepts ranging across diagnosis, signs and symptoms and tens of thousands of surgical, therapeutic and diagnostic procedures. “We are extremely pleased to be able to formalize this collaborative effort,” said SNOMED International CEO Don Sweete. “The inclusion of the NCPT in SNOMED CT further enhances the utility of the clinical terminology and aligns with our focus on social determinants of health; nutrition playing a key component of an individual's well-being.” “This collaboration comes at an exciting time for health professionals around the world who provide food and nutrition services and care,” said registered dietitian nutritionist Kevin L. Sauer, the 2021-2022 President of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “The NCPT is a necessary building block as we solve challenges like malnutrition in all its forms and food insecurity, now and in the future. The Academy has worked with dedicated subject matter experts to author and provide a well-defined nutrition terminology, and the integration of NCPT into SNOMED CT is a major breakthrough toward reaching these objectives.” The five-year agreement governs the working relationship between the Academy and SNOMED International regarding the maintenance and updating of NCPT content in SNOMED CT. Related activities will also include developing an approach to the method and content of attribution, developing and maintaining processes based on changes to SNOMED CT over time, and to managing additions and changes to the NCPT. Both organizations will work together to build awareness of the benefits of this initiative among dietetic and nutrition professionals and will consider future collaborative activities based on emerging global requirements. About the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Representing more than 112,000 credentialed nutrition and dietetics practitioners, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is the world’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals. Headquartered in Chicago, Ill., the Academy is committed to improving the nation’s health and advancing the profession of dietetics through research, education and advocacy. Visit the Academy at www.eatright.org . Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

Ontology 2.0 deepens LOINC®-SNOMED collaboration, speeds global lab interoperability Back 1 Oct 2025 Back INDIANAPOLIS, US and LONDON, UK – October 3, 2025 – Regenstrief Institute and SNOMED International have released LOINC® Ontology 2.0, the next version of The LOINC Ontology: A LOINC and SNOMED CT Interoperability Solution and a significant advance in their ongoing collaboration to streamline the exchange and use of health data worldwide. This version expands the Ontology with approximately 6,000 additional concepts, with more than 2,500 new “Orderable Grouper” concepts that provide practical, higher-level groupings for laboratory orders. By introducing this organization, called LABORDERS.ONTOLOGY, the partners are deepening their relationship and making it easier for implementers to deploy a broader range of LOINC and SNOMED CT concepts across health information systems. Developed as a LOINC and SNOMED CT interoperability solution, the LOINC Ontology helps organizations that implement different combinations of the two standards meet clinical and regulatory requirements with a single, complementary approach. SNOMED CT supplies the computable framework, while LOINC contributes rich laboratory and pathology content in a widely understood format – benefiting implementers globally, including those in countries that do not yet use LOINC. The update is in response to international users who requested clearer navigation and application. Instead of working with a flat list of tens of thousands of concepts, implementers can now use this organization hierarchy to locate and manage related tests more efficiently. Version 2.0 continues to support the ongoing development of standardized laboratory orders and results for exchange and use in health data systems globally. Each grouper combines component, system (specimen) and a new “measurement” property to group related result concepts, giving users an at-a-glance structure that encompasses three or more related tests. These concepts are designed for ordering, not for reporting results, and align with the granularity typical of laboratory order catalogs. “Many laboratories need order codes that are more abstract than result codes,” said MarjorieRallins, DPM, M.S., executive director of Health Data Standards at Regenstrief, which oversees LOINC. “With these new Orderable Grouper concepts, we’re giving the community a better way to align laboratory ordering practices with the rich specificity of LOINC. The LOINC Ontology is novel and transformative in providing clinical observation content in an integrated format that accelerates interoperability and supports stakeholders with meeting clinical and regulatory requirements.” “Significant commitment and collaboration have gone into producing this Ontology,” said Don Sweete, CEO of SNOMED International. “SNOMED CT contributes the computable clinical framework, rigorous semantics and terminology that anchor the Ontology 2.0 hierarchy, enabling navigation, decision support, analytics and global interoperability alongside LOINC’s laboratory content. It’s an excellent illustration of how we’ve leveraged our mutual expertise to further the goal of interoperability for implementers globally.” Key highlights of LOINC Ontology 2.0 include: ONTOLOGY concepts: Each combines component, system (specimen) and a new “measurement” property to group related result concepts. Created for ordering, not results: These concepts provide a granularity consistent with typical laboratory order catalogs but should not be sent as result codes. Clearer navigation: Users gain an “at a glance” structure that encompass three or more related result concepts for easier browsing. Guidance and training: Tutorials and educational resources will be developed to support correct implementation and prevent misuse. The LOINC Ontology is fully owned by Regenstrief Institute and is available free of charge under the existing LOINC royalty-free license. SNOMED International members and users can access LOINC in the same format as SNOMED CT. Each organization retains editorial control of its respective standard. SNOMED International, a not-for-profit organization governed by 50 global members, sets global standards for health terminology. Its comprehensive, multilingual SNOMED CT enables healthcare professionals to capture, share and analyze patient care data to support safe, effective health information exchange. In 2022, the two organizations signed a milestone agreement to create a LOINC extension of SNOMED CT. This built on a partnership established in 2013 that linked SNOMED’s clinical semantics to LOINC’s observational concepts, improving data exchange and interoperability across health systems. For more information and to browse and download the Ontology, visit https://loincsnomed.org . This press release was originally published on the Regenstrief Institute website on September 29, 2025. About LOINC® LOINC® was created in 1994 at Regenstrief Institute to facilitate interoperability in healthcare. There was a growing trend to send clinical data electronically between healthcare entities, a practice that has now become ubiquitous. Today, it contains more than 108,000 concepts for everything from an albumin level to a zygomatic arch X-ray report. For each concept, LOINC contains many other rich details, such as synonyms, units of measure and carefully crafted descriptions. About SNOMED International SNOMED International is a not-for-profit organization that owns and develops SNOMED CT, the world’s most comprehensive healthcare terminology product. We play an essential role in improving the health of humankind by determining standards for a codified language that represents groups of clinical terms. This enables healthcare information to be exchanged globally for the benefit of patients and other stakeholders. We are committed to the rigorous evolution of our products and services, to deliver continuous innovation for the global healthcare community. SNOMED International is the trading name of the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation. https://www.snomed.org . About Regenstrief Institute Regenstrief Institute, based in Indianapolis, is a globally renowned medical research organization with expertise and innovation in aging, health services and biomedical informatics research, global health standards and data stewardship. The organization collaborates with local, state, national and international public and private sector partners to develop, conduct, disseminate and implement impactful scientific research and solutions in health systems and across communities. The Institute’s vision is to engage in pioneering, transformative, interdisciplinary solutions for a healthier world. Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

2023 Annual Report captures the achievements of SNOMED International and the SNOMED CT community Back 16 May 2024 Back The SNOMED International 2023 Annual Report is now available . In addition to reporting on the organization’s financial performance, the document provides a comprehensive overview of the organization’s pursuits and achievements over the past year. It includes updates on the organization’s regular activities, such as ongoing maintenance and development of SNOMED CT and its ecosystem of related products and services, as well as on new partnerships and initiatives that expand the reach, utility and value of the clinical terminology. Titled “Advancing the Global Language of Healthcare,” the report details the 2023 year-end status of the organization’s five-year strategy and describes how delivering on our 2023 targets has laid the groundwork for the next five-year strategy. Exploration and adoption of artificial intelligence and advanced technologies, broadening our innovative collaborations, and growing SNOMED CT use in digitally maturing regions are a few areas of focus as we define the organization’s priorities to 2030. Other highlights for this year’s report include an up-front section focusing on five key activities over 2023, and an expansion of our regular Member success stories to now include more regional and domain-focused articles. “In addition to meeting our strategy objectives for the year, SNOMED International, with the support of our Members, collaborating partners and broader community, had the opportunity to initiate and drive a number of new initiatives, such as the Entity Linking Challenge, in which we expanded our reach beyond the SNOMED CT community,” said SNOMED International CEO Don Sweete. “We look forward to building on everything we learned from these experiences as we complete the final year of our 2020-2025 strategy.” SNOMED International extends its gratitude to its Members and broad community of stakeholders for the contributions and advances they made throughout 2023 – for participating in our webinars, business meetings, annual Expo and various governance and advisory groups, for engaging with us at events and on social media, and for helping SNOMED CT remain a responsive and agile product capable of quickly responding to ever-evolving needs. Read the 2023 Annual Report here . For more information, contact us at info@snomed.org . Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

BLOG: SNOMED International seeks community feedback on proposed description character limit increase Back 6 Aug 2024 Back Since the date of issue, this information is now out of date and has been archived. It has been made available for reference. When SNOMED International prepares to make changes to various aspects of SNOMED CT, most of which are driven by Member and user request, we often ask our community for their feedback on the potential impact to them. We are now launching a community consultation to solicit feedback on a proposal to increase the size limits of SNOMED CT concept descriptions to 4096 from the current limit of 255 characters. While this change does not represent a modification of the existing specification, it could be disruptive to implementers who have coded fixed length limits into their systems. In this Q&A, SNOMED International Technical Specialist Peter Groves Williams explains the proposed change, its potential benefits, the feedback process and timelines, and the issues that may need to be considered in such an update. Q: What are we asking the community to provide feedback on and why? A: We are considering increasing the maximum length of Fully Specified Name (FSN) and Synonym descriptions from the current limit of 255 to its maximum of 4096 characters, representing the largest number of characters allowed by the specification. We want to understand how this will affect implementers as it may have an impact on software vendors who have created data storage structures that are not dynamically sized. It is important for SNOMED International to understand how this change will affect them, and how we can support them. Q: Why are we considering this change? A: This increase is primarily to accommodate medicinal product FSNs, as their formation is procedurally dictated by the concept model. Terming guidance leads to the current limit being exceeded where there is a large number of ingredients, which is particularly common in multivalent vaccines. Increasing the limit to 4096 characters will ensure that SNOMED CT has the flexibility to accommodate future terming requirements. Q: When does the consultation period start and end? A: The consultation is open now and runs until December 31, 2024. Q: Are there any potential downsides or risks to this change? A: That is the purpose of the consultation – to understand how the proposed change might impact specific implementers so we can help ensure an easy transition in a feasible time frame. Q: What does this mean to me? A: SNOMED CT users should check with their software provider to ensure that relevant storage systems are capable of handling longer descriptions; that they either do not feature a 255 character limit, or that this limit can be increased prior to loading in a release of SNOMED CT which features longer descriptions. The actual timing of that release will be determined in response to feedback received from this consultation exercise. Q: How can I learn more and provide feedback? A: Visit this page for all the details and background and for the link to the feedback document. Questions? Email us at info@snomed.org . Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

BLOG: SNOMED CT integration with Bahmni open-source EMR Back 11 Oct 2023 Back Over the past few years, SNOMED International has embarked upon a number of innovative initiatives and collaborations that deliver on its humanitarian goals of improving patient care globally by furthering the reach and utility of SNOMED CT. One of the most exciting recent examples is our involvement in a joint integration project with the Bahmni Coalition , a group of organizations that use and contribute to the development and implementation of Bahmni, an open-source hospital electronic medical record system. With more than 500 implementations in more than 50 countries, Bahmni is designed for use in resource-constrained settings, many of which are in the early stages of digital health transformation. It is the preferred solution in many Asian and African countries and a strategic asset for many large humanitarian organizations In this blog, Shelley Lipon, Chief Customer Officer, and Nick Egarhos, Global Vendor Engagement Lead and Customer Relations Executive for the Middle East and Africa , discuss our role in the project and the potential it has for improving patient care in resource-constrained regions that may not yet have adopted SNOMED CT. They also highlight the benefits for SNOMED International, outline the collaborative process that has enabled this initiative and summarize the next steps. Q: What is the initiative about and why did SNOMED International get involved? A: This initiative involves openly contributing some of SNOMED CT’s clinical terminology to Bahmni’s open-source hospital information system and electronic medical record (EMR.) SNOMED International got involved in this work because it provided a great opportunity for us to raise the standard of clinical data coding and analysis in a way that aligns with our vision of enabling better patient care everywhere, not just in our Member countries. Bahmni’s open-source EMR has been recognized as a Digital Public Good , so it is listed across multiple catalogues of open source digital products including the DPGA Alliance Registry , UNDP Digital X and the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) solution catalogue. We’ve also undertaken a number of other humanitarian and charitable types of partnerships over the past few years, including the development of the Ejo Health Platform, which focuses on maternal and child health in Rwanda. Our vision as an organization is to broadly enable the “one language of health” and projects like these help make that happen. Q: What are the goals of this initiative? A: For the project as a whole, the goal is to provide an EMR that resource-constrained countries and organizations can use to access essential functionalities such as patient registration, appointments, recording diagnosis and procedures, billing, lab, pharmacy, and more, in one cohesive platform. For SNOMED International, the goal was to create a SNOMED CT module that integrates with the Bahmni EMR to make standardized clinical terminology available to the Bahmni open source EMR product and their users. It enables clinicians and organizations at the beginning stages of digital health maturity – capturing data using free text, radio buttons or simple value lists and not yet recording SNOMED CT directly in the health record – to move up the digital health maturity model and progress beyond that initial stage for data capture and retrieval. Q: Who else is participating in this project? A: We’re working with a coalition of partners, including users, developers, implementers and thought leaders. One of the partners is the global technology consultancy Thoughtworks , which is the company that initially developed the EMR. You can find the list here: https://www.bahmni.org/bahmni-coalition Q: What are the benefits for healthcare organizations, patients and providers? A: Patients whose providers use the Bahmni EMR will experience the general benefits EMRs provide. Their data can be standardized and therefore more easily exchanged with other EMRs and hospital information systems, eliminating the need for patients to find and carry copies of their medical records, including x-rays and other test results, and to constantly repeat their story as they interact with different medical professionals throughout their care journey. With the integration of SNOMED CT, providers can search and save diagnoses and clinical data, generate reports, create forms and access clinical decision support use-cases. They can also receive alerts when a drug-diagnosis interaction is contraindicated. For healthcare organizations, it means they can manage patient information across registration, point of care, investigations, and billing. It’s simple to use with minimal training required. It can be hosted and operated at the hospital site, requiring no dependence on the Internet, and can be used on a variety of devices, including tablets and laptops. It’s modular, flexible and adaptable. Q: What are the next steps? A: The Bahmni EMR has been available for many years, but the current phase of work that will conclude by the end of 2023 focuses on enhancing clinical decision support use-cases for drug-to-drug interactions and drug dosage checking. It will also improve HL7 FHIR compatibility, integration with the SNOMED CT data analytics tool, enabling WHO ICD-10 reports, and integration with a new micro FHIR terminology server. Q: What were some of the challenges the collaborating organizations faced in launching the Bahmni project? A: It’s clear that there can be significant technical challenges, especially from an infrastructure perspective. It can include everything from hardware and networking, all the way to a lack of suitable cellular services or intermittent internet services. This has required us to be nimble in terms of the scope of the project, which now includes a lightweight terminology server that can be run in low-resource environments. Q: Has SNOMED International learned anything in particular from its participation in this initiative that can be applied to future similar engagements? A: Funding models for developing products in healthcare specifically for low- to middle income countries are extremely varied and can include multiple parties with their own unique mandates. Finding funding partnerships can come down to relationships with organizations that have an appropriate funding mandate for healthcare in these regions, some of which we’ve been able to develop through this project. Q: Where can people learn more about it? A: To learn more, visit SNOMED International’s Bahmni + SNOMED CT project on its website as well as Bahmni’s project documentation website . Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

A new collaboration between SNOMED International and ICH promotes seamless data exchange Back 29 Apr 2021 Back London, United Kingdom & Geneva, Switzerland SNOMED International and the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) are announcing the release of important new maps between global medical terminologies SNOMED CT and MedDRA. This collaborative effort is the first deliverable of a new agreement entered into between SNOMED International and ICH. ICH is an international non-profit organisation which brings together regulatory authorities and pharmaceutical industry from across the globe to discuss scientific and technical aspects of pharmaceuticals and to develop ICH guidelines. Owned by ICH, MedDRA , the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities, is a rich and highly specific standardised medical terminology developed by ICH to facilitate sharing of regulatory information internationally for medical products used by humans and is used for registration, documentation and safety monitoring of medical products both before and after a product has been authorised for use. SNOMED International is the not-for-profit organization that owns and maintains SNOMED CT, the world’s most comprehensive clinical terminology with over 350,000 concepts ranging across diagnosis, signs and symptoms and tens of thousands of surgical, therapeutic and diagnostic procedures. This joint effort has produced two independent maps (MedDRA to SNOMED CT and SNOMED CT to MedDRA) which have been derived from frequently used and key pharmacovigilance MedDRA terms identified from the European Medicines Agency and the UK’s Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. In addition, a set of COVID-19 related terms are also included in the first production release of the maps to capture important aspects of the pandemic. The maps are intended to facilitate the exchange of data between regulatory databases (which use MedDRA) and healthcare databases/electronic health records (which use SNOMED CT). In one use case, key pharmacovigilance concepts coded in SNOMED CT in an electronic health record (EHR) could be converted to MedDRA for the purpose of adverse event reporting to regulatory authorities or for the purposes of epidemiological research. In the opposite direction, these same key terms coded in MedDRA representing adverse events, warnings, and other regulatory information could be converted into SNOMED CT so that the information is available in the patient’s record to aid in clinical decision-making. The two maps were created as part of a project involving SNOMED International and ICH entitled WEB-RADR 2 . Funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), a large-scale public-private partnership between the EU and the pharmaceutical industry association, EFPIA, IMI aims to boost biopharmaceutical innovation in Europe and to speed up the development of better and safer medicines for patients. With the creation of the maps from the WEB-RADR 2 project, both SNOMED International and ICH have committed to their ongoing use and maintenance extending past the conclusion of the project. Mick Foy, Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency UK and Chair of the ICH MedDRA Management Committee said “This is an exciting development and an important milestone. Developing interoperability between SNOMED CT and MedDRA has been a long-standing ambition and will greatly enhance data collection for regulatory purposes and for drug safety research”. SNOMED International CEO, Don Sweete, welcomes the evolution of the organization’s relationship with ICH. “It is exciting to see a long-term alliance borne from a collaborative project created to improve drug safety for patients and citizens. This agreement serves a joint commitment by two organizations dedicated to enabling health systems interoperability across regulatory and clinical continuums.” The Production version of the two maps is being made available to licensed SNOMED CT and MedDRA users on April 30, 2021 and will be based on the January 2021 version of SNOMED CT and the September 2020 version of MedDRA. It is planned that the maps will be released annually in April. To access the maps: Licensed MedDRA users, visit the Downloads page on the MedDRA website Licensed SNOMED CT users visit SNOMED International Visit SNOMED International or MedDRA’s Maintenance and Support Services Organization (MSSO) for map release documents, including: MedDRA-SNOMED CT Mapping Conventions are available here for SNOMED CT users and here for MedDRA users. Criteria for accepting requests for additions or changes to SNOMED CT to MedDRA map and MedDRA to SNOMED CT map is available here for SNOMED CT users and here for MedDRA users Map Change Request Tool (Map CR) and Map CR User Guide For more information on these maps and resources, please contact MedDRA MSSO ( mssohelp@meddra.org ) or SNOMED International ( info@snomed.org ). Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

In Memoriam: Stewart Jessamine Back 8 Feb 2019 Back In Memoriam of our Dear Friend and Colleague, Stewart Jessamine It is with great sadness that I share with you the news of Stewart Jessamine’s recent passing.Within New Zealand, Stewart was a much loved and respected member of the Ministry of Health family having dedicated over 26 years to its service progressing numerous initiatives and projects. As we knew Stewart, he was a driving force and contributor to the IHTSDO and then SNOMED International community. His passion for the global implementation and adoption of SNOMED CT was unparalleled, lending his time to progress the development and evolution of our vision and mission. Stewart first joined IHTSDO’s General Assembly (GA) in 2010, quickly taking ownership of many key initiatives resulting in his appointment as GA Chair for 2011 and 2012. After fulfilling his term, he stayed on as an active GA Member, sharing his enthusiasm for SNOMED CT and mentoring new Members as they signed on to the organization. In 2016, Stewart was once again appointed GA Chair, a role which he ultimately served in until 2017. When Stewart formally stepped down from the General Assembly in 2017, it gave the organization a chance to reflect on his years of service. He was instrumental to the changing role of governance for IHTSDO, having not only impacted it from the GA level, but also his support and guidance for changes in the organization. Demonstrating the laudable career and accomplishments he had built in New Zealand, Stewart worked closely with Alastair Kenworthy to shape the successful outcome of the SNOMED CT Expo held in Wellington, NZ in October 2016. Our staff, governance bodies, and Community of Practice will dearly miss Stewart’s genuine passion and drive. We offer our sincerest condolences to his family, colleagues past and present, and all those that called him a friend. Don Sweete CEO SNOMED International Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe