Background

The URI formats, defined in the previous sections of this document, can be used to identify SNOMED CT content that has been officially published, and may therefore be stored in an Electronic Health Record and exchanged between clinical systems. However, during the process of creating a SNOMED CT release, concepts may exist in a pre-published state. These concepts are considered to be "work in progress" and subject to change or removal, prior to their official publication. For a variety of reasons (including testing, early adoption etc), users may require a way to identify this unpublished content.¹ Note that the terminology or code system for SNOMED CT will always be specified as http://snomed.info/sct, even when the version of this terminology is an unpublished version, e.g. http://snomed.info/xsct/900000000000207008

SNOMED International already uses the X (eXperimental) indicator for alpha & beta releases of International and national editions of SNOMED CT, eg xSnomedCT_BelgiumExtensionRF2_PREPRODUCTION_20210315T120000Z/Snapshot/Terminology/xsct2_Concept_Snapshot_BE1000172_20210315.txt. This additional 'x' is added to make it clear that the contents have not been "officially" published.

Form

Unpublished Editions and Versions

The URIs that identify unpublished editions (i.e. the current build) and unpublished versioned editions (i.e. versions) take the following respective forms:

http://snomed.info/xsct/{moduleId}

http://snomed.info/xsct/{moduleId}/version/{timestamp}

Unpublished SNOMED CT Components

The URIs that identify components relative to an unpublished edition or version take the following respective forms:

http://snomed.info/xsct/{moduleId}/id/{sctId}

http://snomed.info/xsct/{moduleId}/version/{timestamp}/id/{sctId}

Examples

The following table shows some examples of URIs for unpublished artifacts.

Table 2.8-1: Examples

 For a more extensive list of SNOMED CT edition URI examples, please refer to 4.4.2 Edition URI Examples