Selected news

IHTSDO PUBLIC NOTICE REGARDING ANTECEDENT VERSIONS OF SNOMED CT

Context: What are Antecedent Versions of SNOMED CT?

SNOMED CT’s development began many years ago. At the time that IHTSDO purchased the rights to SNOMED CT from the College of American Pathologists (CAP), IHTSDO also purchased rights to “antecedent intellectual property” owned by CAP, including SNOP, SNOMED, SNOMED II, SNOMED International (3.x), and SNOMED RT.

Some of these old versions (or local variations or language translations which have developed over time) are still in use, particularly for histology results reporting. Many of these may no longer be officially licensed and exist only in paper format held by clinicians that are not maintained over time.

 

Introduction

In April 2008, the Management Board agreed that the issue of the management of old versions of SNOMED needed to be addressed. The reasons behind this decision were three-fold namely:

• IHTSDO is not maintaining antecedent versions. Use of these versions may involve significant risk, which is likely to increase over time.
• IHTSDO will stop issuing licenses to antecedent versions in a specified timeframe.
• IHTSDO strongly encourages users of antecedent versions to put appropriate migration plans in place to move to SNOMED CT

This proposal was discussed with IHTSDO Members and the College of American Pathologists [CAP] throughout the next year. No adverse feedback was received from Members or our broader consultations. Feedback from CAP revealed that some licenses have however been continued through CAP. When the IHTSDO acquired the intellectual property for SNOMED CT and antecedents it was agreed to grant back to CAP the rights to continue to license these products for 10 years (until April 26th 2017). CAP have agreed they would prefer to see all users of antecedent versions move to SNOMED CT

 

Decisions

At its meeting of October 2009 the highest authority of the IHTSDO, the General Assembly made the following decisions, which should be communicated via a public announcement that:

 

1. The IHTSDO is not maintaining antecedent (old) versions of SNOMED, such as SNOP, SNOMED, SNOMED II, SNOMED International (3.x), and SNOMED RT. Since both clinical science and the terminology itself have evolved considerably since they were developed, use of these older versions may involve risk. IHTSDO cannot be responsible for this risk.
2. The announcement is issued jointly by the IHTSDO and its Members to strongly encourage users of antecedent versions to put appropriate plans in place as soon as possible to migrate to the current version of SNOMED CT. Some resources exist that may help in this process, such as bridging files for SNOMED II and SNOMED 3.5 to SNOMED RT.
3. In order to maintain continuity for existing users of antecedent versions, it is proposed that they will be able to continue licensing these products until 26th April 2017. IHTSDO and its Members propose to stop issuing (directly or indirectly) licenses for the use of antecedent versions including SNOP, SNOMED, SNOMED II, SNOMED International (3.x), and SNOMED RT as of April 26th 2017 except for research purposes and to enable the interpretation of historical data captured using antecedent versions.
4. Individual Members of IHTSDO may, as is their right, institute policies that antecedent versions of SNOMED should not be used within their jurisdictions prior to 26th April 2017.
5. This announcement has the clinical support of the World Association of Societies of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine through the International Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Special Interest Group of the IHTSDO

Migrating to SNOMED CT

Any current user of an antecedent version of SNOMED, who wishes for further information or help, should contact the IHTSDO. Please note that the International Release of SNOMED CT includes migration tables between antecedent versions that may be of assistance to those who are preparing to move from antecedent versions of the terminology to SNOMED CT. For more information, please see the Technical Reference Guide. Furthermore, a number of additional maps are also available from country National Release Centres. Maps available internationally include a SNOMED II to SNOMED RT bridge file and a SNOMED 3.5 to SNOMED RT bridge file.

 

About the IHTSDO

The IHTSDO (International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation) and its Members seek to improve the health of humankind by fostering the development and use of suitable standardized clinical terminologies, notably SNOMED CT, in order to support the safe, accurate, and effective exchange of health information. SNOMED Clinical Terms™ (SNOMED CT™) is a standardized terminology that can be used as the foundation for electronic health records and other applications. For example, different clinicians often use different terms to describe the same concept. SNOMED CT contains more than 300,000 unique concepts and more than 1.3 million links or relationships between them that ensure that this information is captured consistently, accurately, and reliably across the health system. The terminology is in use in more than fifty countries around the world. SNOMED CT was originally created by the College of American Pathologists by combining SNOMED RT and a computer-based nomenclature and classification known as Clinical Terms Version 3, formerly known as Read Codes.

 

For more information: http://www.ihtsdo.org/.

 

Issued: June 2010

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