5. Upgrading to a complete SNOMED CT Edition

• ** Why you should upgrade to full SNOMED instead (aka warnings of less content in subontology, and why we recommend using full SCT)Topics to include

Differences between the IPS Reference Set, the IPS Terminology, and the complete SNOMED CT Edition

The IPS Terminology is a subset of the complete SNOMED CT Edition, and it's designed to provide the minimum necessary functionalities for an IPS implementation, improving over the previously available IPS Reference Set, but using a complete edition provides advanced features that will improve any implementation.

Upgrading to a complete SNOMED CT Edition

As the IPS Terminology is a subset of a complete edition of SNOMED CT, and it shares the same distribution formats and implementation mechanisms, the process of replacing the IPS Terminology with a complete edition of SNOMED CT is straightforward. The terminology server would be updated to load the least SNOMED CT Edition Snapshot, and it can be updated to each new release, maintaining all references to historical content. The ECLs used for implementation or analytics don't need any changes, and will automatically select a larger set of relevant concepts in the complete edition.

Additional tooling would be required to support new features like the creation of extensions, reference sets, mappings, translations, and post-coordination.

Access to a complete edition of SNOMED CT may be granted by being located in a country that is a member of SNOMED International, from the local National Release Center, or by requesting an affiliate license in non-member countries.