This section provides an overview of:
-
features
-
Exploring
-
design and development
-
components and
- SNOMED CT characteristics
- SNOMED CT supporting different languages
- SNOMED CT products and services
Why is this important?
An awareness of
features,
, 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
:
When implemented in software applications,
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
content is represented by
and supported by
(Refsets).
Exploring SNOMED CT
While reading the guide, you may find it useful to explore the content of
. You can do this using one of a range of online
listed on our web site at http://snomed.org/browsers. Note that the listed
are not endorsed by
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
as they vary in the way they present particular features of the terminology.
SNOMED CT Design and Development
SNOMED CT Components
SNOMED CT is a core clinical healthcare terminology that contains
with unique meanings and formal logic based definitions organized into
.
content is represented using three types of
:
These
are supplemented by
, which provide additional flexible features and enable configuration of the terminology
to address different requirements.
Concepts
represent clinical thoughts, ranging from |abscess| to |zygote|. Every
has a unique numeric
. Within each
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
link appropriate human readable terms to
. A
can have several associated
, each representing a
that describes the same clinical concept. Each
of
includes an additional set of
, which link
in another
to the same
. Every
has a unique numeric
Relationships
link concepts to other
whose meaning is related in some way. These
provide formal definitions and other properties of the
. One type of
is the
which relates a
to more general
. These
define the
of
Other types of
represent aspects of the meaning of a
Every
has a unique numeric
Reference sets
(Refsets) are a flexible standard approach used by
to support a variety of requirements for customization and enhancement of
. These include the representation of
, language preferences for use of particular
and
from or to other code systems. Every
has a unique numeric
SNOMED CT Hierarchies
are organized in hierarchies. Within a
range from the more general to the more detailed. Related
in the
are linked using the |is a| relationship.
- Examples of some of the hierarchies include |clinical finding|, |procedure|, |observable entity|, |body structure| and |organism|.
SNOMED CT Characteristics - Comprehensive, Scalable and Flexible
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
, such as
related to ophthalmology. These
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
in a mental health facility can be tailored to that setting. Similarly,
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
. Thus, even though
is global in scope, it can be adapted to each country's or areas requirements.
maps work to provide explicit links to health related classifications and coding
schemes in use around the world, e.g.
such as
, and
. Maps to or from several national code systems are also available from, or under
development, by
. Maps to or from clinical domain specific code systems are also maintained by specialty
groups with which
has collaborative agreement. Maps facilitate reuse of
based clinical data for other purposes, such as reimbursement or statistical reporting.
Supporting Different Languages
is a multinational, multilingual terminology. It has a built-in framework to manage
different
and
. The
includes a set of language independent
and
. Today,
is available in US English, UK English, Spanish, Danish and Swedish. Partial
into Canadian French, Lithuanian, and several other
are currently taking place, and further
are being planned by
The basic objective of any
is to provide accurate representations of
in a way that is understandable, usable, and safe.
must be
based. Translators need to analyse
based on the
and take account of its position within the
, its
, and its
to other
. This enables a meaningful
of a
based on phrases that are well used and clearly understood in all countries.
maintains guidelines and other materials to support countries undertaking translations.
SNOMED CT Products and Services
and organizations covered by the SNOMED CT
have access to a range of products and services, including: