SNOMED CT - a gentle introduction

Standard NOmenclature of MEDicine - Clinical Terms is a:
- Comprehensive medical reference terminology
- Product of SNOMED® International, a division of the College of American Pathologists (CAP).
- Combination of two vocabularies: SNOMED RT® and the UK National Health Services Clinical Terms Version 3 (Read Codes) and was released December 2001.

On July 1, 2003: National Library of Medicine/HHS signed a 5 year contract with CAP to make SNOMED CT® available for free through the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) as a major step to achieving interoperability in the health system (part of the eGov Consolidated Health Informatics (CHI) Initiative).

SNOMED CT® has over 40 years of R & D in US/UK, demonstrated completeness of coverage in numerous studies and is currently incorporated into two large systems: UK National Health System and US Kaiser Permanente's Convergent Medical Terminology (CMT).

SNOMED CT® is a powerful vocabulary for describing medical concepts completely and to great detail (small granularity). The same concept may be expressed in different ways as core (pre-coordinated) and/or compound (post-coordinated) concepts and attributes. There is extensive cross mapping to other frequently used medical vocabularies with provision for extension to "local" terminologies and dictionaries.

SNOMED CT® is being incorporated into UMLS® and will be ready for release from the National Library of Medicine in Q1 2004. Tools and training for dealing with the vocabulary will be available from SNOMED International and from the National Library of Medicine (via UMLS).

Challenges confronting developers will be the establishment of the infrastructure needed for SNOMED CT® to operate successfully, the migration of legacy data and applications into SNOMED CT®-friendly formats, the maintenance of the terminology and local extensions and the diffusion of system-wide acceptance of SNOMED CT® related changes.

(A hyperlinked version of this outline and the attached resource list will be posted on the Division of Health Sciences Website:http://dhsi.med.jhmi.edu/

Resources:

SNOMED® International: http://www.snomed.org/

Source for SNOMED CT® information, including product description, users groups, references to research papers, press releases and presentations. Contact information for support and training.

National Library of Medicine: Unified Medical Language System® (UMLS): http://umlsks.nlm.nih.gov/

Source for UMLS files, programming and lexical tools to manipulate tables for use in different environments. Training is organized through the National Network of Medical Libraries: http://nnlm.gov/mar/online/description.html

References:

Cimino JJ, "Desiderata for Controlled Medical Vocabularies in the Twenty-First Century," Methods Inform Med 1998; 37: 394-403

Dolin R, "Kaiser Permanente's 'Convergent Medical Terminology'", SNOMED User Group Meeting, San Antonio, Texas, November 8, 2003.
URL: http://www.snomed.org/Users_group/Presentations2002/SNOMED_at_KP/sld001.htm
(Last checked 08-19-2003).

Markwell D, "SNOMED® Clinical Terms-Technical Design/Using SNOMED® Clinical Terms in clinical statements," Presentation CEN TC251, Berlin, 4 February 2001.

National Health Information Infrastructure 2003, Conference Materials from "Developing a National Action Agenda for NHII", June 30-July 2, 2003, Washington DC.
URL: http://www.nhii-03.s-3.net/materials.htm
(Last checked 08-18-2003).

National Health Service, SNOMED Clinical Terms® - resource page.
URL: http://www.nhsia.nhs.uk/snomed/pages/pastevents.asp
(Last checked 08-19-2003).

Price C, "Forming the Foundation for Enterprise-wide Applications of SNOMED CT: The UK National Health Service," ", SNOMED User Group Meeting, San Antonio, Texas, November 8, 2003.
URL: http://www.snomed.org/Users_group/Presentations2002/Colin%20Price/
(Last checked 08-19-2003).

SNOMED CT¨ Product Profile, SNOMED International, January 2003.
URL: http://www.snomed.org/SNOMEDCT_Product_Profile_0603.pdf
(Last checked 08-18-2003).

SNOMED® International Users Group Conference, SNOMED CT® Goes Live! November 8, 2003, San Antonio, Tx.
URL: http://www.snomed.org/Users_group/Presentations2002/Presentations.htm
(Last checked 08-19-2003).

Spackman K, "SNOMED CT Goes Live: A Vision for the Future of Health Care Information," SNOMED User Group Meeting, San Antonio, Texas, November 8, 2003.
URL: http://www.snomed.org/Users_group/Presentations2002/Kent%20Spackman
(Last checked 08-19-2003)