Regenstrief and SNOMED International broaden collaboration to facilitate interoperability nationally and globally by linking LOINC and SNOMED CT Back 16 Oct 2023 Back Laboratory terms are initial focus of standardized terminology initiative INDIANAPOLIS, US and LONDON, UK -- With the goal of facilitating broader interoperability of health data around the globe to enhance and improve the delivery of healthcare, LOINC® from Regenstrief and SNOMED International have commenced generation of The LOINC Ontology: A LOINC and SNOMED CT interoperability solution . The LOINC Ontology supports providers and users who implement different combinations of SNOMED CT and LOINC in health information systems and allows them to meet clinical and regulatory requirements in a single solution. Linked together in a complementary way, SNOMED CT provides the computable framework and LOINC provides laboratory and pathology content in an understood format to countries who do not currently use LOINC. This standardized terminology initiative to facilitate health information exchange provides new opportunities for growth of LOINC and SNOMED adoption and appreciably improves interoperability between the two standards, which serve an intersecting group of global implementers. The LOINC Ontology is fully owned by Regenstrief Institute. It will be made available without charge under the existing LOINC royalty free license. SNOMED International members and users will be able to work with LOINC in the same format they already use for SNOMED CT. Each organization retains editorial control of its respective standard. To date, more than 24,000 LOINC terms are included in the LOINC ontology preview which will be published in the last quarter of the 2023 calendar year for review and feedback. “The LOINC Ontology, a LOINC and SNOMED CT interoperability solution, is novel and transformative in providing clinical observation content in an integrated format and accelerates interoperability and supports stakeholders with meeting clinical, regulatory and administrative requirements,” said Marjorie Rallins, DPM, M.S., executive director of LOINC and Health Data Standards at Regenstrief. LOINC, short for Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes, is a worldwide standard, used in 193 countries and available in 20 languages, for identifying health measurements, observations and documents enabling the identification, exchange and collection of data across health systems. Created and maintained at Regenstrief Institute, the system is free to users. "Significant commitment and collaboration has been invested by both teams to produce the LOINC ontology preview,” SNOMED International CEO, Don Sweete shared. Sweete further elaborated, “This serves as an excellent illustration of how we have leveraged our mutual expertise to further the goal of interoperability for implementers globally.” Owned and governed by 48 global Members, SNOMED International is a not-for profit organization that is charged with setting global standards for health terminology, a critical element of safe and effective healthcare. SNOMED CT is 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. The two organizations signed a milestone collaborative agreement in 2022 which lay the foundation for creation of the LOINC extension of SNOMED CT. Teams from both organizations working on the extension will meet at the upcoming LOINC Conference and at the SNOMED CT Expo , both to be held in Atlanta, Georgia. The 2022 agreement extended a relationship, inaugurated in 2013, which linked the clinical semantics of SNOMED to LOINC observational concepts enabling the identification, exchange and collection of data across health systems. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted and emphasized the importance of coordinated standards to support interoperability of health data. About LOINC® LOINC® was created in 1994 at Regenstrief Institute in an effort to facilitate interoperability in healthcare. Today, the LOINC coding system contains more than 100,000 terms for everything from a serum alpha 1 antitrypsin level to a zygomatic arch x-ray report. For each concept, LOINC includes many other rich details, such as synonyms, units of measure and carefully crafted descriptions. About Regenstrief Institute Founded in 1969 in Indianapolis, the Regenstrief Institute is a local, national and global leader dedicated to a world where better information empowers people to end disease and realize true health. A key research partner to Indiana University, Regenstrief and its research scientists are responsible for a growing number of major healthcare innovations and studies. Examples range from the development of global health information technology standards that enable the use and interoperability of electronic health records to improving patient-physician communications, to creating models of care that inform practice and improve the lives of patients around the globe. Sam Regenstrief , a nationally successful entrepreneur from Connersville, Indiana, founded the institute with the goal of making healthcare more efficient and accessible for everyone. His vision continues to guide the institute’s research mission. 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/ Resources: Frequently asked questions A summary of the LOINC & SNOMED CT collaboration Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

The Monarch Initiative has signed a five-year collaboration agreement with SNOMED International. SNOMED and the Monarch Initiative collaborate to develop two-way maps for HPO The Monarch Initiative has signed a five-year collaboration agreement with SNOMED International. Back 2 Feb 2023 Back London, United Kingdom and Colorado, United States – The Monarch Initiative has signed a five-year collaboration agreement with SNOMED International to develop maps from the clinical terminology SNOMED CT to Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO - a standardized vocabulary of phenotypic abnormalities encountered in human disease) and to HPO from SNOMED CT. HPO is a flagship product of the Monarch Initiative , a U.S. National Institutes of Health -supported international consortium dedicated to semantic integration of biomedical and model organism data with the ultimate goal of improving biomedical research, and an integrative data and analytic platform connecting phenotypes to genotypes across species, bridging basic and applied research with semantics-based analysis. It is also a central component of one of the 13 driver projects in the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health strategic roadmap. SNOMED CT is a comprehensive, multilingual healthcare terminology created for use by healthcare professionals to capture the care of individuals in an electronic health record (EHR) and facilitate sharing, decision support and analytics, to support safe and effective health information exchange. As part of the agreement, the organizations will work together to develop mapping conventions by which both maps will be created, along with use cases. Both organizations will also collaborate on quality assurance, promoting the maps to their respective stakeholders and defining and agreeing upon an ongoing maintenance and updating process and policy for the developed maps. SNOMED International CEO Don Sweete explains that the collaboration is a natural next step for the two organizations, both of which have recognized and discussed the steadily increasing interest in genomics over the past few years. “The development of maps to and from both ontologies will be extremely beneficial for both clinical interoperability and research in a domain that holds so much promise for the way we understand and treat hereditary and genetic conditions,” he said. “And as the largest global clinical terminology, SNOMED CT is well-positioned to enable advances in this domain.” Melissa Haendel, PhD, is Chief Research Informatics Officer at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, one of the research institutions that’s spearheading the work of the Monarch Initiative. “Through the Monarch Initiative, our team is categorizing our collective knowledge and standardizing rare disease diagnoses worldwide,” said Dr. Haendel. “This work is also allowing researchers to globally compare disease phenotypes, as well as species, which can tell us a lot about how genetic defects affect humans.” Media Inquiries: Kelly KuruSNOMED International Email: comms@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

The Ministry of Health is the governing instance and leader of the National Health System, guaranteeing coverage of timely and comprehensive services. El Salvador The Ministry of Health is the governing instance and leader of the National Health System, guaranteeing coverage of timely and comprehensive services. Contact Details Centro Nacional Habilitador SNOMED Phone: +503 25917011 Email: snomed@salud.gob.sv Appointed Representatives General Assembly: William Hoyos Arango Member Forum: Herber Hernandez Trejo, William Hoyos Arango News articles In accordance with the law of the National Integrated Health System, in 2020, the Ministry of Health set itself the challenge to strengthen the digital transformation of the health sector. During this collaborative process it had the participation of all the actors in the system and based on a situational diagnosis, conceived a vision of the future of digital health. This vision of the future is complemented by the identification of critical success factors to achieve it. Among the activities carried out, the infrastructure of syntactic and semantic interoperability processes and the organization’s information repositories stand out. The Ministry of Health of El Salvador will coordinate and lead the participation and contribution of the actors of the health system in the activities and tasks related to SNOMED international, will execute a strategy of socialization and adoption in the health environment of the country and forms the National Center of Habilitation of SNOMED CT clinical terminology. The registration and systematization of clinical data under the terminology service will allow the adequate analysis of multiple variables, guaranteeing complete, timely, verifiable, reliable, and quality information, giving rise to a lower number of sub-registrations, and generating benefits that in the short term will lead to having an updated and truthful information system for monitoring, epidemiological surveillance and timely decision making. Back Learn more Global Patient Set Built from the globally recognized SNOMED CT terminology standard at no cost to users Learn more Get SNOMED CT Information about our license and fee structure Learn more Software and tools We develop and operate applications platforms to support our products and services Learn more Document library Access overviews, guides and specifications Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

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SNOMED CT helps Cantebury District Health Board realize its data driven vision Back 23 Nov 2020 Back SNOMED International has released a series of videos that demonstrate the value that a healthcare system is deriving from implementing and using SNOMED CT, the world’s most comprehensive clinical terminology. The first chapter of the SNOMED CT Value Series, which focuses on New Zealand’s Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB), highlights the advances the organization has made in realizing its vision of a connected, integrated system that supports the country’s Healthy Ageing strategy and enables it to better serve its population. Acting Executive Director Planning, Funding and Decision Support, Ralph La Salle offers that “an integrated health system is essential for the health outcomes of the Canterbury population and quality data with thorough analysis leads to shared clinical insights and new ways of working collectively to optimise this integration.” Carolyn Gullery, who at the time of filming was the Executive Director, Planning, Funding and Decision Support for the CDHB, said New Zealand’s commitment to becoming a SNOMED International Member in 2007 was the beginning of a positive change for a healthcare system that was, like so many others across the globe, under extreme financial and performance-related pressure. She explains that in 2007, while its primary care system was thriving, its hospital system was struggling. Canterbury needed a better picture of its current situation and a way to predict the future needs of its 578,000 residents. Harnessing the power of data analytics Key to that goal, she noted, was the ability to use data and analytics to understand why people were ending up in the health system, who they were and how to intervene more effectively to reduce the demand on the system and provide better care for patients. By using SNOMED CT as part of its core infrastructure, and its Healthcare Analytics Solution (HCAS), a software tool that applies natural language processing to the unstructured text-based data in a clinical record, the health boards were able to code their existing data to SNOMED CT and then demonstrate to clinicians the power of using those codes to analyze that data. It is estimated that approximately 80 percent of health data is unstructured, and can represent text, photos, X-rays, voice/video recordings, slides and emails, among other types of health data. By building a series of systems that act as an integrated health platform, CDHB managed to use the same number of beds in 2019 as it did in 2007 for a population that over 12 years had grown by 80,000. Canterbury representatives also observed a 30 percent lower emergency department use and a 30 percent lower acute medical admission rate than the national average, meaning New Zealanders are less likely to end up in the hospital in Canterbury than in any other part of the country. Reducing manual labor for clinicians According to Dr. Nigel Gilchrist, a Canterbury physician, the organization had also struggled to identify vertebral spine fractures and identify patients who may not have received care for those fractures. By using SNOMED CT to search 13,000 X-ray reports as part of a pilot project involving West Coast DHB patients, the organization found that one-third of relevant patients had been treated, another third had not, and the remaining third had been misclassified. “We now identify over 200 new vertebral fractures every month,” he explained. “SNOMED CT has enabled us to identify specific case mixes that would otherwise take someone a long time to do manually.” In fact, the organization saved more than a year of a clinician’s time. Interoperability across platforms Another benefit of using SNOMED CT is its interoperability across the healthcare district’s best-of-breed applications. “We need to be sure we’re speaking the same language when we use data, and if we move it around, it’s got to mean the same thing in one place as in another,” said Dr. Saxon Connor, a Canterbury physician. Other Canterbury clinicians say they are most excited by SNOMED CT’s ability to help two different clinical tools – an electronic medical record system and a pathways tool – talk to each other via a SNOMED CT code linked to diagnoses, and by the ability to search for pathways and find hierarchies. “In the past, we had to go through our pathways manually and put keywords on them so people could find them, and with SNOMED we get all those synonyms for free,” said Kieran Holland, Clinical Lead for New Zealand’s HealthPathways Programme , an online clinical guidance tool. “It has improved the user search experience.” SNOMED CT: a piece of the digital health ecosystem as CDHB realizes multiple benefits 30 percent lower emergency department use than the national average 30 percent lower acute medical admission rate than the national average Held 2019 bed use to same numbers as in 2007 while serving a population that had grown by 80,000 Identified vertebral fracture patients who had not received care or whose cases had been misclassified Saved a year of clinician time by automating previously manual processes Interoperable across best-of-breed system Ability to link clinical tools via a SNOMED code Ability to search for pathways and hierarchies and improved user search experience There is more energy than ever in rolling out SNOMED CT as a key clinical information standard for an equitable New Zealand health and disability system, one that is data-driven and digitally enabled and SNOMED International’s CEO, Don Sweete, recognizes the dedication of New Zealand’s implementation efforts. “Canterbury is a great example of the breadth of maturity that SNOMED CT offers from data coding, data analysis, and ultimately the ability to apply artificial intelligence to already structured SNOMED CT data. It’s an end to end example of the benefit of SNOMED CT.” New Zealand’s focus over the next few years is on primary and community care, where users are migrating their systems from Read Codes to SNOMED CT as they introduce new models of care and supporting software. Watch the Value Series to learn more about SNOMED CT and New Zealand, a founding SNOMED International Member represented by the Ministry of Health Manatū Hauora. Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

Licensing If you are using and/or deploying SNOMED CT in a non-Member country/territory, you are required to apply for a license on an annual basis. All licensees in non-Member countries are required to submit a Statement of Usage via Member Licensing and Distribution Service annually. Back License via MLDS Annual Fees for each Data Processing System Non Member Territory Band Annual Fee (USD) Hospital/Institution in Band B Territory (upper-middle-income economy) 1,303 Hospital/Institution in Band C Territory (lower-middle-income economy) 652 Practice in Band A, B or C Territory 652 Hospital/Institution or Practice in Low Income Band 0 Hospital/Institution in Band A Territory (high-income economy) 1,954 Mobile application development fees Please contact info@snomed.org if you or your organization is interested in obtaining a SNOMED CT development license for mobile applications. Fee structure for Web and Mobile apps Contact us Do you have questions about SNOMED International membership, licensing or fee exemptions? For a fee calculation or estimate, please contact info@snomed.org with information about your intended use. Other modes of deployment e.g. web applications and browsers, will require special permission and fees applied. Access the help center Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe Locate your territory band Follow the link below and select your country. Your income level will appear on the right hand side of the page Locate your territory band

Ireland Joins IHTSDO as Member Back 9 Nov 2016 Back The International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO) announced today that Ireland had joined as its twenty-ninth Member. IHTSDO owns and administers SNOMED CT, the world’s most comprehensive health terminology. Founded in 2007 by nine charter nations, IHTSDO is a strong member-owned and driven international organization. The addition of Ireland has grown the Membership to 29 countries and territories across five continents. Ireland decided to join IHTSDO after an extensive consultation process, which included a report from the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA). The report identified the adoption of a standard terminology such as SNOMED CT as essential to the implementation of the national Irish eHealth Strategy, as well as the risks associated with not adopting SNOMED CT. As IHTSDO’s newest Member, Ireland will enjoy benefits such as: Use of SNOMED CT within Ireland Management of the release, distribution, and sublicensing of SNOMED CT and other IHTSDO products within Ireland Representation on the IHTSDO General Assembly Access to forums and networks to share and learn from others’ experiences implementing and using the terminology “We are delighted to be the 29th Member of IHTSDO and we see this as an important step towards interoperability and connected health to support eHealth Ireland,” said Richard Corbridge CIO HSE, CEO eHealth Ireland. “As we strive to put in place the concepts of a ‘digital fabric’ for health, the Irish healthcare system understands the need for working on an international platform around standards and best practice.” “Ireland joins a global community with shared assets, common needs, and a commitment to exchanging experiences and working together on shared priorities,” said IHTSDO CEO Don Sweete. “We welcome them as a Member and look forward to further growing our Membership in 2017”. Subscribe to SNOMED International news Stay up to date on SNOMED news, features, developments and newsletters by subscribing to our news service. Subscribe

This study presents a methodology for constructing a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) semantic network system based on SNOMED CT, addressing challenges in terminology standardization and knowledge integration within the TCM domain. By analyzing SNOMED CT's framework and encoding rules, and incorporating TCM-specific features (e.g., property-channel tropism, efficacy classification), we designed an ontological model encompassing core concepts, attribute relationships, and terminology mapping. The system employs semantic web technologies (e.g., RDF, OWL) to establish hierarchical and associative relationships among TCM concepts (e.g., "incompatibility," "pharmacological effects") while ensuring compatibility with SNOMED CT for international standardization. Experimental validation involved constructing a prototype semantic network (e.g., nodes for Astragalus membranaceus) to demonstrate the system's efficacy in terminology normalization, knowledge reasoning, and cross-domain data linkage. This research provides a feasible solution for standardizing and enabling intelligent applications (e.g., clinical decision support, big data analytics) of TCM knowledge, while expanding SNOMED CT's applicability to traditional medicine. It aims to foster integration between TCM and Western medicine and advance the modernization and digitization of TCM through foundational semantic infrastructure. Back View Map Digital Health China (2 of 2) Construction of a Traditional Chinese Medicine Semantic Network System Based on SNOMED CT Read More Country / Region APAC Tags Global/International, Innovation, Research This study presents a methodology for constructing a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) semantic network system based on SNOMED CT, addressing challenges in terminology standardization and knowledge integration within the TCM domain. By analyzing SNOMED CT's framework and encoding rules, and incorporating TCM-specific features (e.g., property-channel tropism, efficacy classification), we designed an ontological model encompassing core concepts, attribute relationships, and terminology mapping. The system employs semantic web technologies (e.g., RDF, OWL) to establish hierarchical and associative relationships among TCM concepts (e.g., "incompatibility," "pharmacological effects") while ensuring compatibility with SNOMED CT for international standardization. Experimental validation involved constructing a prototype semantic network (e.g., nodes for Astragalus membranaceus) to demonstrate the system's efficacy in terminology normalization, knowledge reasoning, and cross-domain data linkage. This research provides a feasible solution for standardizing and enabling intelligent applications (e.g., clinical decision support, big data analytics) of TCM knowledge, while expanding SNOMED CT's applicability to traditional medicine. It aims to foster integration between TCM and Western medicine and advance the modernization and digitization of TCM through foundational semantic infrastructure. Description The study focuses on: Terminology Standardization: Developing a TCM-compatible terminology system based on SNOMED CT to unify TCM expressions. Semantic Network Construction: Using RDF/OWL to model TCM concept relationships (e.g., property-channel tropism, efficacy, incompatibility). Knowledge Integration & Mapping: Aligning TCM knowledge (e.g., herbs, formulas, pharmacology) with SNOMED CT for interoperability. Application Validation: Testing feasibility via exemplary networks (e.g., Pogostemon cablin nodes) for clinical decision support and analytics. Scope Global Authority: Widely adopted in EHRs, enhancing TCM's international compatibility. Structured Knowledge Representation: Hierarchies and semantic relationships support modeling TCM complexities. Semantic Reasoning: Enables future applications like automated drug interaction checks. Cross-Domain Mapping: Bridges TCM-Western medicine terminology (e.g., herb-drug combinations). Extensibility: Open update mechanisms allow incremental TCM concept additions. How SNOMED CT will be used Key uses include: Standardization Framework: Adapting SNOMED CT's hierarchies (e.g., "substance/drug," "procedure") for TCM ontology design. Semantic Extension: Extending SNOMED CT's relationships (e.g., Is_a, Part_of) to TCM-specific links (e.g., "channel tropism"). Terminology Mapping: Partial alignment of TCM concepts (e.g., Astragalus "Herbal drug") for cross-domain interoperability. Technical Compatibility: Using OWL/RDF to ensure integration with global medical knowledge graphs. Limitation: SNOMED CT's limited TCM coverage necessitates supplemental TCM-specific concepts. 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

Syadem and SNOMED International announce release of the Unified Nomenclature of Vaccines Extension Back 8 May 2025 Back SNOMED International and Syadem are pleased to announce the release of the Unified Nomenclature of Vaccines ( NUVA ) Extension. France-based Syadem owns and manages NUVA, a terminology used to capture, interpret, and process records of administered vaccines. SNOMED CT is a comprehensive, multilingual healthcare terminology created for use by healthcare professionals. It 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. SYADEM participates in the European Vaccination beyond COVID (EUVABECO) project, which is co-funded by the European Commission under the eU4Health program . By mid 2026, EUVABECO will deliver implementation plans for innovative vaccination practices to EU Member States. The plans will support the operationalization of several tools including a portable European Vaccination Card (EVC). NUVA is the intended code system for documenting administered vaccines in the EVC. The release follows the April 2024 announcement of the formal collaboration between the two organizations, which was formed to facilitate the creation of comprehensive vaccination histories for individuals over time, regardless of the original vaccine source and data format. The partners also agreed to collaborate to integrate NUVA content as an extension in SNOMED International’s Community Content Area, define processes for ensuring content alignment, and, where relevant, include NUVA concepts in the SNOMED CT International Edition. The NUVA Extension includes all of the NUVA vaccine content, including branded products, valences and medicinal product role. It facilitates alignment with, and strengthens access to, vaccine content in a SNOMED CT format, supporting both clinical and regulatory requirements for vaccine information. “Team members from both organizations have made considerable progress in achieving the goals we agreed upon a year ago,” says SNOMED International CEO Don Sweete. “As we watch a growing measles crisis unfold in North America and bird flu continue to spread, we see that the risks to human health from vaccine-preventable illnesses have not diminished in that time, and in fact, continue to increase. Our work together helps ensure the world can respond more quickly and effectively to these ongoing challenges.” “Three years ago, we realized how helpful our NUVA terminology could be to the digital health community and made the decision to offer it as a global common good,” says SYADEM scientific director Jean-Louis Koeck. “SNOMED International immediately grasped the value of that idea and helped us in maturing this solution. Now, with this first release and the constitution of a supporting network of vaccine coding experts through the International Vaccine Codes Initiative (IVC), it becomes a reality.” International Summit on Vaccine Coding & Standards Conference The SNOMED International team participating in the NUVA collaboration work are attending the International Summit on Vaccine Coding & Standards Conference on May 9, 2025, in Bordeaux, France, where the release will be formally announced. Co-organized by the American Immunization Registry Association and Syadem, the event will focus on advancing global vaccine interoperability through the International Vaccine Codes Initiative (IVC) and NUVA. The teams will also provide technical information about the NUVA Extension and alignment with SNOMED CT, and discuss the importance and benefits of the collaboration between the two organizations. For more information about the conference, visit the conference website . View the NUVA extension here . Media Inquiries: SYADEM Timothée Bahuaud Email: tbahuaud@mesvaccins.net SNOMED International Kelly Kuru Email: comms@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

Disaster hazard research conducted by Australia’s Monash University leads to new SNOMED CT content Back 19 Jan 2024 Back Upon receiving a request from SNOMED International Member, Australia , the organization recently incorporated new and relevant climate and natural disaster concepts in the International Edition of SNOMED CT. Fulfilment of the request exemplifies the multifaceted and collaborative processes that drive the ongoing development and improvement of SNOMED CT, the world’s most comprehensive clinical terminology. Signalling the effectiveness of the content development process, it is the users, Members, researchers, clinicians and other stakeholders that identify gaps and work together with SNOMED International to discuss, model and include relevant content in SNOMED CT. The request for inclusion of climate content in SNOMED CT was driven by the findings of a study titled Evaluating the representation of disaster hazards in SNOMED CT: gaps and opportunities , published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association , in which researchers from Australia’s Monash University examined gaps in clinical terminologies available to healthcare professionals during disaster-related events. In particular, it found meteorological, hydrological, extraterrestrial, geohazard, environmental, technological and societal content required coverage in SNOMED CT. The study, which mapped the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction-International Science Council ’s Hazard Information Profiles to SNOMED CT, provided a list of concepts in which climate and disaster related content fell short in SNOMED CT. For example, research revealed that SNOMED CT lacked content related to “heatwave” and “drought,” phenomena that have intensified due to climate change and that have significant impacts on human health, migration patterns and armed conflict situations globally. In response, approximately 90 percent of the requested missing concepts identified in the study and submitted by Australia’s SNOMED CT National Release Centre (NRC) have been included in SNOMED CT. “SNOMED International recognizes the work of researchers who authored this report along with the Australian NRC for requesting the addition of this content,” says SNOMED International Chief Terminologist Dr. James Case. “As an agile standards development organization, this is a great example of how we engage and work with Members to prioritize and respond to their content requests. This ensures clinical and environmental changes on the ground, including promotion of relevant content to the International Edition, are addressed as quickly as possible.” With SNOMED International’s move to releasing the International Edition monthly, the content will be available to users more quickly than in the past, when the International Edition was published twice a year. The addition of climate and natural disaster related content received, reviewed and quality assured by SNOMED International in late June of 2023 is a prime use case for the move to frequent releases, as was the rapid inclusion of COVID-19 content at the beginning of the global pandemic in 2020. The study also noted the major role that nursing, the largest professional group in healthcare, plays in defining the health indicators that will be important in the overall monitoring of health interventions to support communities in disaster mitigation, preparation, response and recovery, and climate change adaptation and mitigation. The 2021 integration of the International Classification for Nursing Practice into SNOMED CT and release as a reference set will help providers and policymakers better plan, implement and evaluate the effectiveness and impact of policies, procedures and actions related to a broad array of disaster events. 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. www.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

The European Health Data Space (EHDS) regulation mandates that all Electronic Health Record Systems (EHRs) shall include equipped with European interoperability and logging components, i.e. harmonized software components of EHR systems. These components will allow citizens to access, share, amend, and request rectification of the EHR data. The xShare project (2023-2026), is an European Union research an innovation action that paves the way for the EHDS, advancing the vision that everyone can share their health data in the EHR Exchange format of the EHDS - at the click of a button, the xShare Yellow button. Supported by 6 Standards Developing Organizations, Interoperability Competence Centers, Hospitals, Regional and National Agencies, and leading Industry Associations, xShare reached it mid-point, having achieved impressive results among which: 1. Having established the European Standards Health Interoperability Alliance, as its sustainability pathway, to support, advance and maintain resources and tools for the EHDS bridging primary use with population health and clinical research. 2. Explored the feasibility of the xShare Industry Label 2025, in bronze, silver, and gold edition with 14 recipients at the IHE Europe Connectathon in June 2025 3. Set up an impressive team of volunteers, active across Standards organizations including SNOMED to prepare, ballot and reconcile HL7 FHIR Implementation guides for the six priority data categories of EHDS /EEHRxF and IPS+ for public health and clinical research. 4. Launched an open call of early adopters for the xShare “Yellow” Button that as of now number more that 76 entries from more that 26 countries. Back View Map Medcom xShare Yellow Button: Unlocking innovation in the EHDS, from Data to Personalised, Actionable Insights Read More Country / Region EMEA Tags Artificial intelligence, Data quality, EHDS (European Health Data Space), Implementation The European Health Data Space (EHDS) regulation mandates that all Electronic Health Record Systems (EHRs) shall include equipped with European interoperability and logging components, i.e. harmonized software components of EHR systems. These components will allow citizens to access, share, amend, and request rectification of the EHR data. The xShare project (2023-2026), is an European Union research an innovation action that paves the way for the EHDS, advancing the vision that everyone can share their health data in the EHR Exchange format of the EHDS - at the click of a button, the xShare Yellow button. Supported by 6 Standards Developing Organizations, Interoperability Competence Centers, Hospitals, Regional and National Agencies, and leading Industry Associations, xShare reached it mid-point, having achieved impressive results among which: 1. Having established the European Standards Health Interoperability Alliance, as its sustainability pathway, to support, advance and maintain resources and tools for the EHDS bridging primary use with population health and clinical research. 2. Explored the feasibility of the xShare Industry Label 2025, in bronze, silver, and gold edition with 14 recipients at the IHE Europe Connectathon in June 2025 3. Set up an impressive team of volunteers, active across Standards organizations including SNOMED to prepare, ballot and reconcile HL7 FHIR Implementation guides for the six priority data categories of EHDS /EEHRxF and IPS+ for public health and clinical research. 4. Launched an open call of early adopters for the xShare “Yellow” Button that as of now number more that 76 entries from more that 26 countries. Description The xShare Yellow Button vision conveys that people get their health data in a standard format at the click of a Button. Thus, it stimulates innovation by supporting GDPR data portability. The ambition of xShare is to help turn standardised European Electronic Health Record exchange Format (EEHRxF) data into personalised, actionable insights for patients and professionals. Join this talk to learn the achievements of xShare in its first 18 months and learn how to contribute to the standard and perhaps be an early adopter. Scope SNOMED is a partner of the xShare project and the leading reference terminology in digital health. How SNOMED CT will be used SNOMED CT is key in bridging health care, public health and clinical research. SNOMED CT has key role in the myHealth@EU and the EHDS. In xShare, SNOMED CT helps bridge terminology gaps. 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

The department of neurosurgery at University Hospitals Leuven, in collaboration with a terminologist, established a standardized complication registration system through an iterative consensus process. Following rigorous clinical review, 102 complications were selected, resulting in a final list of 100 concepts (91 unique SNOMED CT identifiers). Complications were categorized as: intraoperative, postoperative surgical, postoperative medical. To enable tracking the absence of complications and the proportion of completed registrations, a 'no complication' category was also included. Our standardized complication registry has been clinically operational since February 1, 2023. It documents all neurosurgical procedures (N=3501) with SNOMED CT-coded complications (or their absence) linked to surgical procedures (using local codes) in the electronic patient record (EPR) problem list and covers the period from surgery through 6 weeks of postoperative follow-up. Analysis through April 21, 2025 shows 92% coverage. Our datawarehouse integrates these procedures and complications with laboratory results, imaging reports, medications, readmissions, and survival data - providing clinicians with comprehensive patient overviews and enabling the identification of clinically relevant patterns over time Key features 1. Clinical utility: Surgeons register the complications directly in workflow using EPR templates 2. Terminology flexibility: Light version of post-coordination when needed (MRCM-compliant) 3. Future-ready: * Architecture permits eventual Clavien-Dindo integration (Grade I-V severity scoring) * Technical foundations exist for SNOMED CT procedural coding (requiring future IT development) This implementation demonstrates how SNOMED CT can support surgical outcome monitoring while pragmatically accommodating existing systems. The multidimensional linkage will enable both quality benchmarking and research applications in the future. Back View Map University Hospitals Leuven Implementation and outcomes of SNOMED CT-based complication registration in the electronic patient record: an experience at the department of neurosurgery, University Hospitals Leuven Read More Country / Region EMEA Tags Clinical Practice, Data quality, Implementation, Innovation, Pre/postcoordination The department of neurosurgery at University Hospitals Leuven, in collaboration with a terminologist, established a standardized complication registration system through an iterative consensus process. Following rigorous clinical review, 102 complications were selected, resulting in a final list of 100 concepts (91 unique SNOMED CT identifiers). Complications were categorized as: intraoperative, postoperative surgical, postoperative medical. To enable tracking the absence of complications and the proportion of completed registrations, a 'no complication' category was also included. Our standardized complication registry has been clinically operational since February 1, 2023. It documents all neurosurgical procedures (N=3501) with SNOMED CT-coded complications (or their absence) linked to surgical procedures (using local codes) in the electronic patient record (EPR) problem list and covers the period from surgery through 6 weeks of postoperative follow-up. Analysis through April 21, 2025 shows 92% coverage. Our datawarehouse integrates these procedures and complications with laboratory results, imaging reports, medications, readmissions, and survival data - providing clinicians with comprehensive patient overviews and enabling the identification of clinically relevant patterns over time Key features 1. Clinical utility: Surgeons register the complications directly in workflow using EPR templates 2. Terminology flexibility: Light version of post-coordination when needed (MRCM-compliant) 3. Future-ready: * Architecture permits eventual Clavien-Dindo integration (Grade I-V severity scoring) * Technical foundations exist for SNOMED CT procedural coding (requiring future IT development) This implementation demonstrates how SNOMED CT can support surgical outcome monitoring while pragmatically accommodating existing systems. The multidimensional linkage will enable both quality benchmarking and research applications in the future. Description This implementation project has dual clinical and research objectives with direct patient care impact: Primary: Clinical Quality Improvement * Real-time monitoring of postoperative complications through standardized SNOMED CT documentation * Supports clinical decision support: triggered alerts for abnormal values (lab/imaging) Secondary: Research Enablement Provides structured outcome data for: * Service-level quality benchmarking * Postoperative recovery trajectory analysis Scalable Architecture: Designed for future expansion to: * Ranking the severity of the complication (Clavien-Dindo) * Procedure coding standardization * Multidisciplinary complication management This scope reflects our "quality-first" approach where research benefits emerge from clinically relevant, caregiver-driven data collection. Scope SNOMED CT was selected for this initiative based on both clinical-technical merits and alignment with Belgian healthcare policy: * Mandated National Standard * Implements the Belgian government's strategic choice for SNOMED CT as the preferred clinical terminology * Complies with recommendations from Belgian healthcare agencies (e.g., eHealth Platform) * Clinical Precision for Neurosurgery * Provides granular concepts tailored to neurosurgical complications * Enables accurate distinction between similar conditions (e.g., different locations of nerve injury’s) * Future-Proof Infrastructure * Allows integration with other SNOMED CT-coded data across the healthcare continuum * Facilitates compliance with evolving Belgian digital health regulations How SNOMED CT will be used Clinical Registration Process: * Neurosurgeons directly record complications (or their absence) as SNOMED CT-coded diagnoses/findings in the patient's problem list using drop-down menus or a grid of tiles (EPR) * Critical implementation detail: * The surgical procedures remain coded using the hospital's local procedure coding system (non-SNOMED) * The association between complication and procedure is established through the EPR's native relationship mechanism (non-SNOMED link) * This hybrid approach ensures clinical workflow compatibility while maintaining semantic precision for complications Post-Coordination Approach: * When required concepts aren't available as precoordinated terms, we employ a light post-coordination method using EPR templates * Methodology: * Start with the most specific available parent concept * Add clinical meaning through attribute relationships * Strictly follow MRCM (Reference Set Member) rules for valid concept composition * Example: If a specific complication isn't available, we might: * Select the broader SNOMED concept (e.g., "Complication associated with nervous system implant") * Add attributes like: * Associations with devices (e.g., "Intrathecal implantable infusion pump") * Temporal context (e.g., "intraoperative during surgery") 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. 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