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Second 2009 International Release of SNOMED CT® now available
Copenhagen, Denmark; July 2009 – The second 2009 International Release of SNOMED Clinical Terms® (SNOMED CT®) will be available for use on July 31, 2009, incorporating enhancements which are part of on-going efforts directed towards facilitating the use of the terminology in electronic health records.
SNOMED CT is a standardized clinical terminology which facilitates the consistent capture, exchange and aggregation of health data. The International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO®) releases updates to the International Release of SNOMED CT twice per year to ensure that the terminology reflects the latest clinical knowledge and evolving user needs.
The July 2009 release of SNOMED CT includes numerous content enhancements, such as:
· Added Content To Respond to User Needs – This edition adds more than 1300 new concepts to the International Release, including concepts related to the H1N1 virus, which were developed shortly after the virus was identified and pre-released to users on request. 94% of individual requests for additions or changes to SNOMED CT received prior to the cut-off date for this release were addressed in the July 2009 edition. The remainder are being carried forward to the January 2010 release.
· New Concept Model for Infectious Disease – A new concept model for infectious disease was introduced. It uses a “pathological process” attribute to identify infectious and parasitic diseases. This change is intended to make it easier to identify concepts in these areas and to eliminate overloading in the organisms hierarchy.
- Improvements to Evaluation Findings/Procedures and Poisoning Concepts – Significant progress was made in completing and quality assuring the modelling of evaluation findings and evaluation procedures, as well as their sub-hierarchies, measurement findings and measurement procedures. As part of this process, defining relationships have been added to almost 3200 additional concepts, facilitating more consistent retrieval of information related to clinical test results and examination findings. In addition, nearly half of the poisoning (disorder) concepts were reviewed and/or revised for this release. These enhancements improve a clinician’s ability to use the concepts that are most meaningful in a patient’s record and enable improved decision support.
- “Internationalization” of SNOMED CT Content – This release saw a large number of country-specific concepts moved out of the main International Release, including almost 2500 brand-name veterinary products. These changes are designed to ensure that the SNOMED CT core addresses broad-based global needs, with local and regional needs being addressed through extensions to the core terminology. In addition, a decision was made to retire all “limited use” concepts (also known as “status 6” concepts) as of the January 2010 release.
SNOMED CT is continuously updated to meet the needs of users around the world. Revisions to the International Release of SNOMED CT are issued twice per year. Each release includes the core of the terminology (concepts, descriptions and relationships), together with works to support the implementation and use of SNOMED CT, including subsets, cross maps to existing classifications and coding schemes and an extensive set of guidelines.
These updates are driven by users of the terminology. Examples include refinements to descriptions, re-modelling of concepts or the addition of new concepts. Prior to release, the SNOMED CT content undergoes a quality assurance process. A preliminary version is then pre-released to members for broader review before the final files are generated and distributed.
About International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO)
The IHTSDO and its Members from around the world 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. The IHTSDO is an international organisation, established as a Danish not-for-profit association based in Copenhagen, Denmark. More information is available at www.ihtsdo.org.
About SNOMED CT
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 310,000 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 used in more than 40 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 Version 3, which was created on behalf of the UK Department of Health and is Crown copyright.
SNOMED, SNOMED CT and IHTSDO are trademarks of the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation. All other trademarks used in this document are the property of their respective owners.
