HSCIC

EMEA

Research

A pilot project involving eight distinct specialties has demonstrated that there are benefits for specialists to work with clinical terminologists to ensure that the terminology reflects best current practice and to ensure clinical ownership of the terms within defined speciality subsets. One specialty has been able to gather sufficient clinical data in SNOMED CT to demonstrate benefits in terms of subsequent data analysis and acquisition of knowledge beneficial to the commissioning of the specialty.

The project has demonstrated a requirement for co-ordinated clinical involvement in the on-going development and support of SNOMED CT overseen by the Royal Colleges and specialty groups within them. The next steps involve further subset development and testing by specialties and trusts. This should include the development and analysis of quality indicators predicated upon clinician recorded data using SNOMED CT.

Within the project there has also been some interaction with groups that engage with patients and carers. Early indications are that there will also be benefits to patients and carers from the consistency and visibility achieved through developing and publishing specialty subsets, especially when they can view their patient record.

Location: Leeds, United Kingdom

Description

N/A

Scope

Eight diagnosis subsets for outpatients have been published, further subsets have also been produced following on-going interaction with the UK Terminology Centre.
Two peer reviewed publications in medical journals with at least four others submitted.
Better visibility of patient population, volumes and complexity of care (due to multiple conditions) in paediatric disability. This has led to resource and service changes.
The national dataset for Children and Young People’s health services which is soon to be implemented has been modified to include the disability subset and SNOMED CT terming in general.
The Royal Colleges of Paediatrics and Child Health are engaged with further developments in SNOMED CT.
Continuing interest from NHS England has ensured that SNOMED CT is used for data collection in the genomics project.
Many of the clinicians involved in the pilot project will be clinical champions for future developments.

How SNOMED CT will be used

SNOMED CT was selected to support the national mandarin of SNOMED CT as the single clinical terminology of choice, and therefore to develop solutions that would support future processes within the NHS.