This section provides an overview of:

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  SpacePreSpace truefalse t SNOMED CT

  features

• Exploring 

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  design and development

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  SpacePreSpace truefalse t SNOMED CT

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   components and

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• SNOMED CT characteristics
• SNOMED CT supporting different languages
• SNOMED CT products and services

Why is this important?

An awareness of

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 features, 

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, characteristics and products provides an initial foundation on which to build greater understanding. It also informs discussions leading to decisions about adoption, implementation and use of this terminology.

What is this?

SNOMED CT Features

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:

• Is the most comprehensive, multilingual clinical healthcare terminology in the world.
• Is a resource with comprehensive, scientifically validated clinical content.

• Enables consistent, processable representation of clinical content in

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• Is mapped to other international standards.
• Is already used in more than fifty countries.

When implemented in software applications,

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can be used to represent clinically relevant information consistently, reliably and comprehensively as an integral part of producing electronic health information.

Implementation requires an understanding of the way that

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 content is represented by

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 and supported by

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 (Refsets).

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While reading the guide, you may find it useful to explore the content of

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. You can do this using one of a range of online

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listed on our web site at http://snomed.org/browsers. Note that the listed

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 are not endorsed by

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 and they should only be used to a get feel for the content and structure of the terminology. It is useful to experiment with several different

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 as they vary in the way they present particular features of the terminology.

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SNOMEDOverview name SNOMEDOverview pagePin 3

SNOMED CT Design and Development

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SNOMED CT is a core clinical healthcare terminology that contains

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with unique meanings and formal logic based definitions organized into

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.

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 content is represented using three types of

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:

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   representing clinical meanings that are organized into hierarchies.

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  which link appropriate human readable

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   to

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   which link each concept to other related

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These

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 are supplemented by

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, which provide additional flexible features and enable configuration of the terminology to address different requirements.

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Concepts

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represent clinical thoughts, ranging from |abscess| to |zygote|. Every

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 has a unique numeric

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. Within each

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are organized from the general to the more detailed. This allows detailed clinical data to be recorded and later accessed or aggregated at a more general level.

Descriptions

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link appropriate human readable terms to

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. A

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 can have several associated

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, each representing a

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 that describes the same clinical concept. Each

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 of

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 includes an additional set of

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, which link

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 in another

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 to the same

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. Every

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 has a unique numeric

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Relationships

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 link concepts to other

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 whose meaning is related in some way. These

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 provide formal definitions and other properties of the

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. One type of

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is the

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 which relates a

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to more general

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. These

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 define the

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of

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• For example, the

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   |bacterial pneumonia| and |viral pneumonia| both have an |is a| relationship to |infective pneumonia| which has an |is a| relationship to the more general

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   |pneumonia|.

Other types of

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 represent aspects of the meaning of a

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• For example, the

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   |viral pneumonia| has a |causative agent| relationship to the

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  |virus| and a |finding site|

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  to the

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   |lung|.

Every

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 has a unique numeric

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Reference sets

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(Refsets) are a flexible standard approach used by

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 to support a variety of requirements for customization and enhancement of

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. These include the representation of

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, language preferences for use of particular

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 and

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 from or to other code systems. Every

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 has a unique numeric

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SNOMED CT Hierarchies

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 are organized in hierarchies. Within a

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range from the more general to the more detailed. Related

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 in the

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are linked using the |is a| relationship.

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SNOMED CT Characteristics - Comprehensive, Scalable and Flexible

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has a broad coverage of health related topics. It can be used to describe a patient's medical history, the details of an orthopedic procedure, the spread of epidemics, and much more. At the same time, the terminology has an unmatched depth, which enables clinicians to record data at the appropriate level of granularity.

Specific applications tend to focus on a restricted set of

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, such as

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 related to ophthalmology. These

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 can be used to present relevant parts of the terminology, depending on the clinical context and local requirements. This means for example, that a drop down list to select diagnoses in an

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 in a mental health facility can be tailored to that setting. Similarly,

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 can be defined for problem lists for physician specialties or to provide appropriate medication lists for nurses in community care.

When individual jurisdictions have needs beyond those that can be reflected in a global terminology, perhaps due to requirements in local legislation, they can develop local or national

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. Thus, even though

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 is global in scope, it can be adapted to each country's or areas requirements.

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 maps work to provide explicit links to health related classifications and coding schemes in use around the world, e.g.

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 such as

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, and

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. Maps to or from several national code systems are also available from, or under development, by

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. Maps to or from clinical domain specific code systems are also maintained by specialty groups with which

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 has collaborative agreement. Maps facilitate reuse of

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 based clinical data for other purposes, such as reimbursement or statistical reporting.

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Supporting Different Languages

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 is a multinational, multilingual terminology. It has a built-in framework to manage different

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 and

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. The

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 includes a set of language independent

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 and

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. Today,

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 is available in US English, UK English, Spanish, Danish and Swedish. Partial

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 into Canadian French, Lithuanian, and several other

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 are currently taking place, and further

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are being planned by

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The basic objective of any

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 is to provide accurate representations of

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 in a way that is understandable, usable, and safe.

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must be

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 based. Translators need to analyse

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based on the

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 and take account of its position within the

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, its

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, and its

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 to other

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. This enables a meaningful

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 of a

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 based on phrases that are well used and clearly understood in all countries.

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 maintains guidelines and other materials to support countries undertaking translations.

SNOMED CT Products and Services

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 and organizations covered by the SNOMED CT

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 have access to a range of products and services, including:

• SNOMED CT terminology files consisting of:

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  works that help in the uptake and use of

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  , including

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   that support:

  • Identification of

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    of SNOMED CT content

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     or

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     preferences for use of particular 

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  • Maps to other code systems and classifications

  • Other relevant

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     to support use of

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• Implementation guidance for successful use of

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   including:
  • Implementation guidance
  • Translation guidance
  • Editorial guidance for content development
• Access to services supporting submission of requests for changes or additions to content and documentation.

• Participation in the global

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   community through an electronic collaborative space and meeting of special interest groups.

 

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