PDF: Force Page Break

1 Introduction

IHTSDO passed a translation support policy for Members to assist in increasing translation and adoption of SNOMED CT.

 Policy Assumptions:

• IHTSDO will not assume managerial responsibility for any translations other than the existing Spanish translation
• The IP of any derivative work belongs to IHTSDO
• The IP of any translated work belongs to IHTSDO and is to be shared with all Members
• IHTSDO encourages collaboration and will work to make national translation available to all Members
• Minimum core set should be translated for adoption purposes in non-English speaking Member countries

This document deals with the final assumption from the list above, that a minimum core set of terms will be made available, and that this set would be translated into a number of agreed languages to assist new implementers using SNOMED CT.

2 Background

2.1 Scope

The purpose of the release package is to provide a minimum core set of terms with a number of translations to assist in the implementation of SNOMED CT at a national level. The set is not intended to be a definitive list of required terms, but rather to provide a basic set of terms, which can then be extended in line with Member requirements

2.2 Use cases:

PDF: Force Page Break

3 Motivation

PDF: Force Page Break

4 Content

4.1 Minimum Core set (Starter set) creation

The minimum core set (starter set) describes a set of terms identified as commonly used and high usage terms by existing SNOMED CT users. The set is not intended to be a comprehensive list, but rather to provide a defined list of common terms that will support new users of SNOMED CT. The approximate size of the minimum core set is 6,300 concepts.

4.2 Sources of content

To provide the content of the minimum core set, a number of sources have been identified. These are as follows:

▪       NLM top 2500 – 2,500 concepts

▪       Kaiser top 2500 – 2,500 concepts

▪       UK top 1000 terms used in Primary Care – 1,000 concepts

▪       IFP/GP subset – 4,346 concepts

NLM top 2500

Top 2500 problem list – created and maintained by the National Library of medicine (NLM). The list represents the top 2,500 diagnoses codes used in the United States

Kaiser top 2500

Top 2500 concepts used at Kaiser Permanente in the United States – created and maintained by the Kaiser Permanente (KP). The list includes SNOMED CT content created and maintained in the in the Kaiser Permanente SNOMED CT extension.

UK top 1000 terms used in Primary Care

Represent the top 1000 terms used in primary care in the UK. The usage figures represent the use of Read/SNOMED CT codes across multiple UK primary care system suppliers. The content includes mainly content created and maintained in the SNOMED CT UK extension.

IFP/GP (International Family Practice and General Practice) subset

Represents content used in primary care. The content originates from ICPC-2 (International Classification of primary care -2), maintained by the University of Sydney. The number of concepts is just under 4,500, and is reviewed on a release basis by the IFP/GP SIG.

4.3Process 3 Process for the initial creation of the set

The minimum core set is created through the identification of high use content from the specified data sources. The set uses the specified data sources, and any extension specific content is reconciled as specified in Section 4.4. The list is then reconciled to remove duplicates, and the final reconciled list represents the minimum data set for publication.

4.4 Reconciliation of extension specific content

The use of the UK and Kaiser as sources of usage data creates an issue in the specification of an international set of terms, as both data sources include data from local SNOMED CT extensions. Whilst terms specified in extensions cannot be used internationally as they do not exist in the International Release, it is important that conceptually the clinical utterance is provided. For example in the UK extension, there is a concept “Activated partial thromboplastin time (observable entity)”. In the international release there is no equivalent term. But there are concepts representing findings related to “Activated partial thromboplastin time” which should be included in the minimum core set

The process to identify a clinically equivalent term in the International Release will be undertaken by a clinician, who is an experienced individual with extensive knowledge of SNOMED CT.

PDF: Force Page Break

5 Design

5.1 Version

The dependent version of SNOMED CT is the January 2017 International Edition release.

5.2 Ownership

5.3 Frequency

The Production version of the SNOMED CT® Starter Set Translation package will be published after the July 2017 International Edition release of SNOMED CT, based on the Alpha and Beta feedback content changes. Subsequently it will be maintained in line with each release of SNOMED CT International Edition.

PDF: Force Page Break

6 Implementation

PDF: Force Page Break

7 Obtaining the Release

The SNOMED CT® Starter Set Translation package is available from the IHTSDO and is maintained and updated in line with the SNOMED CT International release which is currently 6 monthly.

Access within IHTSDO member countries is provided by the Member National Release Centre in each country, via the relevant Member page. Affiliates of IHTSDO in non-member countries can access the refset through their Member Licensing and Distribution SERVICE (MLDS) account. Please contact info@ihtsdo.org for more information if required.

PDF: Force Page Break

8 Feedback

PDF: Force Page Break

9 Technical Notes

RF2 package format

The RF2 package convention dictates that it contains all relevant files, regardless of whether or not there is content to be included in each particular release.  Therefore, the package contains a mixture of files which contain both header rows and content data, and also files that are intentionally left blank (including only a header record).  The reason that these files are not removed from the package is to draw a clear distinction between:

1. ...files that have been deprecated (and therefore removed from the package completely), due to the content no longer being relevant to RF2 in this or future releases, and 
2. ...files that just happen to contain no data in this particular release (and are therefore included in the package but left blank, with only a header record), but are still relevant to RF2, and could therefore potentially contain data in future releases.

This allows users to easily distinguish between files that have purposefully been removed or not, as otherwise if files in option 2 above were left out of the package it could be interpreted as an error, rather than an intentional lack of content in that release.