United Kingdom's Update April 2008
National activities
Since the IHTSDO was set up in April 2007, the UK Terminology Centre (UKTC) has been created from the existing Data Standards and Products team of NHS Connecting for Health as the main agency with responsibility for UK-wide SNOMED CT and classifications activity.
A UKTC Governance Board has been set up with the main officers of the UKTC and members of the Home Countries (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland). A Committee strategy has also been developed to mirror that of the IHTSDO which is planned to be implemented in April 2008.
The team has developed a business plan outlining strategic and tactical plans, and this is being monitored by the program manager. The UKTC has an ambitious and demanding program of work, of which key areas are tooling, implementation and knowledge management. A key focus for the coming year will be on clinical engagement and implementation with the expected appointment of a clinical director.
Members of the UKTC team have participated heavily in IHTSDO working groups and in all standing committees.
The UKTC has also hosted visitors from other Member countries, specifically Canada, the Netherlands, and Sweden, to provide insight into the realities of producing a national extension.
Approximately 80 changes and 2000 additions have been submitted to the IHTSDO since April 2007. The relationship with the IHTSDO support organization has improved considerably, resulting in better quality submissions and more effective engagement.
Implementation plans/activities
- Mapping from National imaging procedure code set
- Development of pathology catalogue composed from subsets of SNOMED CT content
- Testing impact of release changes to supplier systems
- Development of a compliance framework
- Further development of post-coordination guidance
- Development of best practice for term finding and display
- Development of guidance and process for terminology binding to information model
- Formalizing national standards (dm+d: dictionary of medicines and medical devices)
- Development of dm+d implementation guidance
- Reporting from SNOMED CT encoded patient records project
- Development of technical infrastructure including request submission
- Development of authoring tooling platform to better support distributed development of the terminology
Affiliate activities
The following is an indication of affiliate activity in the UK:
- Surgical procedure subset embedded in theatre scheduling application in use in seven Acute Hospital Trusts since April 2007
- Investigation, specimen, and topography to be used in pathology test catalogue for national implementation from March 2008
- In use in ambulance application throughout one-fifth of the country since early 2007
- GP system (Read code) generated summaries translated to SNOMED for population of Summary Care Record held at national level in 5 Primary Care Trusts from April 2007
- To be used in subsets for referring patients to appropriate out-patient services from April 2008 nationwide
- Used in early adopter secondary care ENT out-patient departments from January 2008
- Used in early adopter learning disabilities service from February 2008
- SNOMED CT-based sensitivity checking within widely used drug knowledge base from June 2007
- Installed in a clinical system which is used in around 30 hospices for palliative care and in over 20 private practices and clinics. These installations cover more than 100,000 patients.
