SNOMED CT Case for Investment - Final September 2021 - Flipbook - Page 48
FULL REPORT
S NOMED C T
What Is Unique About It?
1.
Core Reference Terminology – SNOMED CT is integrated to over 20 other clinical terminologies and classification
systems. It is the core reference terminology in the clinical terminology ecosystem.
2.
Content – For terminologies “content is king”. SNOMED CT, with over 350,000 concepts is the most comprehensive and
fine-grained clinical terminology. It has 3-4 times more content than the next largest clinical terminologies (e.g. LOINC,
RxNorm, ICD) which target narrower sub-domains (e.g. lab & radiology test results, medications or diseases).
3.
Semantic Network - SNOMED CT has a machine-readable, semantic network, as does RxNorm (a drug knowledge base),
whereas other terminologies like LOINC and ICD-10 do not. (note: WHO has indicated that their new ICD-11 product may
have semantic network features however, there has been no indication when this will be available). The semantic network
feature of SNOMED CT differentiates it from other clinical terminologies, especially when used for analytics and research.
4.
Broad Use Context – SNOMED CT is commonly used for documenting problem lists, procedures, clinical findings and
diseases in clinical information systems; data that is used in most clinical processes throughout the patient journey.
Further, the same SNOMED CT-coded data is also used for interoperability, analytics and research purposes.
5.
National Mandates – SNOMED CT is mandated for use in many countries, most notably the U.S.A. (e.g. Meaningful Use),
the U.K. (e.g. NHS policy that all GP systems will use SNOMED CT) and Australia (e.g. SNOMED CT is the preferred national
solution for a clinical terminology that is endorsed by the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council).
2.
3.
Cimino J., “Desiderata for Controlled Medical Vocabularies in the Twenty-First Century“ Methods Inf Med. 1998 November; 37(4-5): 394–403.
Assess CT “Assessing SNOMED CT for Large Scale eHealth Deployments in the EU” Assess CT Recommendations, December 2016. See https://assess-ct.eu/index.php?id=start0