NHS Digital's director of digital transformation says "I need SNOMED clinical terminology to become the central building block of information sharing across health and social care."
Photo courtesy of DigitalHealth.net
May 8 2017
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NHS Digital will be having a “big drive” on standardising clinical terminology across health and social care, according to one of its leaders.
Beverley Bryant, the organisation’s director of digital transformation, told delegates at the UK e-Health Week conference that such standardisation was critical for data sharing.
“What is the point of being a national health service if we don’t capitalise on the national nature of it through standardisation of our clinical terminology?”
She told the London audience on Thursday that: “I need SNOMED clinical terminology to become the central building block of information sharing across health and social care”.
In October 2015, NHS Digital (then known as the Health & Social Care Information Centre) said that all primary care systems needed to switch from Read Codes to the SNOMED system for clinical technology by end of December 2016, with the rest of the healthcare system following suit by April 2020.
Both systems are sets of numerical machine readable codes and human readable descriptions which can be used to uniquely identify clinical concepts.
Bryant said that primary care was not the issue – “it’s in secondary care that we’ve got a lot more work to do”.
She also said that NHS Digital has started work on a social care dictionary for SNOMED terminology.
Bryant said that standardisation “does reduce data collection burdens and transform how we share information and data”.
A few examples were given of how datasets were being linked across the healthcare system, including via the Child Protection – Information Sharing (CPIS) programme.
CP-IS is now receiving 1,000 hits a week between social care and selected healthcare teams, according to Bryant, and was described as a “really useful intervention for frontline patient care”. However, the rollout of the system has been slower than was initially hoped.
NHS Digital’s commissioning last year of the Professional Record Standards Body to develop standards for e-discharge summaries from emergency departments to GPs – it will do so in partnership with the Royal College of Physicians – was also referenced.
Bryant concluded the speech by saying whatever the result of the upcoming general election, the momentum and pace that is now in health IT cannot be halted.
Throughout the conferences, questions to speakers from national bodies were not allowed due to purdah.
Source: DigitalHealth.net
Expo 2017 brings the world’s greatest thinkers together to discuss the global language of healthcare: SNOMED CT. The 2017 conference programme focuses the conversation on your experiences, achievements and enhancements of SNOMED CT.
Due to popular demand we have now extended the deadline for submissions to close on Friday 19th May 2017 (21:00 UTC).
Click here to submit your paper and poster ideas on the following themes today!
- SNOMED in Action
Your practical, first-hand experiences using SNOMED CT in clinical solutions
- Enhancing Clinical Practice using SNOMED CT
The clinical achievements that have been made possible with SNOMED CT
- Leveraging SNOMED CT
Your developments and enhancements of the SNOMED CT product
Read more about conference themes and review submission guidelines.
Please contact snomedctexpo@snomed.org if you require any assistance.
SNOMED CT Expo 2017 is located in the heart of Europe. Bratislava, Slovakia follows successful events in New Zealand, Sydney, Stockholm, Washington DC, Amsterdam and Montevideo. Conference delegates include local and international leading experts, as well as those who are newer to the SNOMED CT community and health terminology.
Please note that as approved in the recent Open General Assembly meeting, the new revised dates for the April 2018 Business Meeting in London, UK are as follows:
Sunday 8th to Wednesday 11th April 2018
The location is still TBC, but it is likely that we will return to the Amba Charing Cross Hotel due to the success of this recent event.
Best wishes,
SNOMED International's Events Team
Beginning May 3rd, SNOMED International will stop using GoToMeeting for its group calls and web conferences, and will transition to ZOOM Videoconferencing and Web Conferencing Service.
This new tool provides more functionality, ability to host more attendees, and better reliability for the SNOMED International community.
We have created a ZOOM confluence page with information on how to sign up, install the app, along with useful tips and tricks here.
What to do next?
The first step is for you to download and setup the application:
- Visit the ZOOM confluence page and follow the download and setup instructions.
- Review the information provided on account features and user how-to-guides to learn more about the service.
If you are host to an upcoming GoToMeeting, please contact techsupport@snomed.org so that we can ensure that you are set up correctly to ease the transition for yourself and meeting attendees.
Please note that until 3rd May, GoToMeeting will continue to work as normal.
For additional information please visit http://snomed.org/zoom or email techsupport@snomed.org.
London (United Kingdom), April 24, 2017 – SNOMED International today announced its newly appointed Management Board. The Management Board renewal process initiated in February 2017 to support SNOMED International’s effectiveness, sustainability and organizational growth as well as improved alignment in terms of culture and narrative regarding authority and ownership. Further, following an industry best practice approach, SNOMED International has reduced its number of members on the Management Board from 10 to 7 members.
Through the renewal process, the Management Board Nominating Committee considered a total of 66 applications for the vacant positions. It was an extremely difficult process to select candidates, as there were many excellent individuals that had expressed their interest to support SNOMED International in a Directorial capacity.
The authority of new Management Board members comes into force effective 12:00 noon BST, 24th April 2017. Newly appointed Management Board members include:
Lady Barbara Judge CBE, Chair
Lady Barbara Judge CBE is the National Chairman of the UK Institute of Directors, as well as Chairman Emeritus of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, having been its Chairman from 2004-2010. She is also currently Chairman of the Energy Institute of University College London and Deputy Chairman of the Tepco Nuclear Reform Committee. In addition, she is a UK Business Ambassador. She is also a member of the UAE Advisory Board for the Development of Peaceful Nuclear Energy and Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Association of Consultancy and Engineering (ACE). In addition she is a Visiting Fellow at Oxford University.
In June 2016 she completed two terms as Chairman of the UK Pension Protection Fund. Earlier in her career she was appointed as the youngest ever Commissioner of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Thereafter she was appointed as the first woman Executive Director of Samuel Montagu and News International.
In 2010 Lady Judge was awarded Commander of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List and in 2015 she received a Sunday Times Non-Executive Director Award for her chairmanship of the Pension Protection Fund.
Lady Judge will serve as the Chair of the SNOMED International Management Board.
Cheemin Bo-Linn
Dr. Bo-Linn is CEO and President of Peritus Partners,Inc. and sits on the Board of Directors for Evena Medical and other public company boards. Dr. Bo-Linn previously held the role of Vice-President of IBM Corp. and was recognized for innovative leadership as the 2015 inductee into the "Hall of Fame for Women in Science and Technology". In 2016, Dr. Bo-Linn was honored as "Top CEOs Leading STEM" (Science, Tech, Engineering, and Mathematics).
Douglas B. Fridsma, MD, PhD, FACP, FACMI*
Dr. Fridsma is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA). Prior to joining AMIA, Dr. Fridsma was the Chief Science Officer for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and has held academic appointments at the University of Pittsburgh, Arizona State University, University of Arizona, and Mayo Clinic.
Gong Mengchun
Dr. Gong is the Executive Director, National Rare Diseases Registry System of China. Dr. Gong was previously a physician at the Department of Internal Medicine, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, as well as serving as the Medical Informatics Consultant for Fudan University, Children’s Hospital.
Jeremy Thorp*
Jeremy Thorp is the Business Architecture Director, Health & Social Care Information Centre, NHS. He has led UK input to European projects epSOS, EXPAND and the Joint Action to support the eHealth Network; he has also been a member of the HL7 International Board and UK Head of Delegation to CEN and ISO health informatics committees.
Joanne Burns
Joanne Burns is the Chief Strategy Officer for the Cerner Corporation. Ms. Burns has held leadership roles with Cerner, the Tiger Institute for Health Innovation and Stanford University Medical Center. Ms. Burns has extensive experience setting up and leading governance boards and received Program Certification in “Women on Boards” from the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health in 2016.
Matic Meglic
Dr. Meglic is the Digital Health Director EMEA at Medtronic. Dr. Meglic has been a contributor to EU public health informatics as CIO, Slovene National Institute of Public Health and coordinator of the key EU ePublicHealth policy project PARENT. Dr. Meglic has also served as Co-chair of epSOS Steering Board and actively contributed to a number of other EU semantic interoperability initiatives.
*Douglas Fridsma and Jeremy Thorp fulfill the 2 positions secured for continued representation from the previous SNOMED International Management Board.
The Management Board has legal and oversight responsibility for the management and direction of SNOMED International. The terms of the appointments are staggered with the longest term being three years and the shortest being one year. Management Board appointments are non-executive Director positions which carry legal responsibility for the governance of the organization.
For additional information on the newly elected Management Board, including profiles and terms of service, please visit www.snomed.org.
SNOMED International wishes to extend its sincerest gratitude to previous Management Board members for their excellent dedication and stewardship, both as it has related to the organization’s strategic direction as well as guidance and participation throughout the management renewal process.
SNOMED International
Owned and governed by its international Member countries, SNOMED International is a not-for-profit organization that produces and enhances the vocabulary that enables the clear exchange of health information for all. The organization provides full support to its global Members and licensees, ensuring that those combined resources achieve significant shared benefits that resonate around the world.
SNOMED International owns, administers and develops SNOMED CT, a product that enables the establishment of semantically accurate clinical terminologies for consistent use across all health systems, services and products in the world. As of January 1, 2017, SNOMED International became the trading name of IHTSDO.
Media Inquiries:
Kelly Kuru, Executive Lead, Communications
SNOMED International
Telephone: +1-416-566-8725 (Canada)
Email: kku@snomed.org
www.snomed.org
Clinical engagement at SNOMED International is changing! SNOMED International continues to evolve its approach to clinical engagement with the newly created Clinical Reference Groups. To enable continuous development of SNOMED CT, it is critical that its clinical content is relevant and up to date. To do this, we rely on input from both clinicians and clinical groups internationally.
Why should clinicians continue their contributions as SIGs transition to Clinical Reference Groups? Engaging via Clinical Reference Groups provides clinicians with a mechanism to ensure that the content required by clinicians is included in SNOMED CT quickly and accurately.
The SIGs will formally retire on April 13, 2017 with the launch of the Clinical Reference Groups. Once the Clinical Reference Groups pages are established on Confluence, the existing membership for each SIG will be migrated across. Please visit the Clinical Reference Groups Confluence page to learn more, or contact the Clinical Engagement Team with your questions concerning approach and participation.
A key emerging theme globally is the requirement to link clinical medications data and the data required for pharmacovigilance, regulation and supply chain.
Following requests from SNOMED International Members and other stakeholders, SNOMED CT® has drafted a position statement describing the relationship between the proposed SNOMED CT Pharmaceutical/biologic product concept model and other international standards. Please click here to download the full document.
This position statement is geared towards the following bodies for information and feedback as applicable:
- Policy makers, or equivalent agencies
- SNOMED International stakeholder groups
- Standards Development Organizations (SDOs)
- SNOMED CT® implementers and software vendors
- Pharmaceutical regulators and the pharmaceutical industry
SNOMED International welcomes all opportunities to discuss partnerships in order to advance our drug content and quality for our members and stakeholders.
For additional information, please contact info@snomed.org.
SNOMED International April 2017 Business Meeting
Sunday 23rd to Wednesday 26th April 2017
The Corporate Services Team would like to remind everyone that registration for the forthcoming SNOMED International April 2017 Business Meeting is now open.
If you intend to attend and have yet to register please click the link below to complete the process asap:
http://www.cvent.com/d/95qkbm/4W
Please note: This is only for those who are attending in person - registration for those dialling-in to meetings is not required.
The full confirmed schedule for the event is available to download here:
http://www.snomed.org/participate/attend-our-events/snomed-international-business-meetings/
The link above also contains useful information about booking your hotel accommodation, as well as some travel advice.
As previously noted, please be aware that due to the London Marathon we are in the unusual situation of having our Sunday sessions in a different area of London to the weekday meetings. The meetings on Sunday 23rd are being held at the Novotel Paddington. This hotel is right near Paddington station, so is a very easy transfer for those arriving via Heathrow. For the weekday meetings (24th-26th) we will return to the Amba Hotel in Charing Cross.
Please contact us by email at events@snomed.org if you have any questions – we hope to see you in London!
SNOMED International seeks a proposal from a suitable organization or a qualified individual to provide content services of SNOMED CT National Drug Extension.The request for a proposal has been made by the Executive Lead, Content and Mapping and the Head of Terminology of SNOMED International.
Please click here for full details, including instructions on how to submit.
SNOMED International will accept responses until 17:00 UTC May 18, 2017.
March 30, 2017 - SNOMED International and IBM have announced that Watson Health will adopt SNOMED CT for use in Watson Health offerings in support of IBM’s commitment to comprehensive standardization of patient data worldwide.
The agreement between SNOMED International and IBM Watson Health breaks new ground and allows for significant impact, pairing SNOMED CT’s 325,000+ clinical concepts with Watson’s cognitive capabilities.
SNOMED CT presents clinically-relevant concepts and modifiers consistently and comprehensively, providing a ‘global language of healthcare’. Standardizing IBM Watson Health’s offerings on SNOMED CT supports efforts to provide customers and collaborators with clear information to help clinicians arrive at sound medical decisions and support the efficient delivery of quality care.
Visit the IBM Watson Health partnerships page to access the official press release and recent Healthcare IT News article.
For more information on IBM Watson Health, visit: ibm.com/watsonhealth.
SNOMED International is pleased to announce the release of the Practical Guide to Reference Sets.
SNOMED CT reference sets enable the maintenance and distribution of a wide range of SNOMED CT derivatives, including subsets, maps, navigation hierarchies and ordered lists. They also provide a standard extensibility mechanism to support effective localization and customization of SNOMED CT.
The Practical Guide to Reference Sets provides an introduction to SNOMED CT reference sets, and explains why, how and where they are used. It also explores the different types of reference sets, and a range of practical approaches to each stage of the reference set life cycle.
The Practical Guide to Reference Sets can be found at http://snomed.org/refsetpg.
SNOMED International is pleased to announce the release of the Decision Support with SNOMED CT guide.
Clinical Decision Support (CDS) systems support healthcare providers to make well informed decisions at relevant points in the patient journey, such as diagnosis, treatment and follow-up.
SNOMED CT enables these CDS systems to select the most relevant clinical guidelines, knowledge and alerts for an individual patient, by leveraging its comprehensive clinical hierarchies and defining relationships.
The Decision Support with SNOMED CT guide introduces the key components of CDS systems, and explores ways in which SNOMED CT can be used to enhance the capabilities within each of these components. This guide has been written to assist Members, vendors and users of SNOMED CT develop a greater understanding of how SNOMED CT can be used to enhance CDS implementations.
The Decision Support with SNOMED CT guide can be found at http://snomed.org/cds.
SNOMED International's Q1 2017 Newsletter is now available:
Note: Click through to Confluence to download.
@MediaplanetUK’s 2017 Connected Health Campaign is focused on the digitalisation of the healthcare system due to increasing economic and patient safety pressures. A holistic, ground-up innovation approach from the private and public sector sees the collaboration between clinicians, policy makers and data analytics resulting in a golden age for personal health.
In collaboration with Digital Heath London, TechUK and the Telecare Services Association, SNOMED International joins the 2017 #ConnectedHealth Campaign to inform clinicians and decision makers of the impact clinical terminology bears on the delivery of connected, interoperable healthcare.
Through his editorial, ‘The global language of healthcare,’ SNOMED International CEO, Don Sweete, shares his views on the important role that a clinical terminology such as SNOMED CT plays in achieving a modern healthcare system. Further, Sweete shares additional opportunities resulting from using clinical terminology in a consistent and unambiguous way through leading practice approaches in the areas of research, quality assurance and overall patient safety.
The 2017 Connected Health Campaign runs through to December and targets print (Guardian Newspaper), digital, social media and events in terms of exposure through its distribution channels.
Follow the #ConnectedHealth Campaign conversation at @Snomedct, #snomedct
SNOMED International April 2017 Business Meeting
Sunday 23rd to Wednesday 26th April 2017
The Corporate Services Team is very pleased to advise that registration for the forthcoming SNOMED International April 2017 Business Meeting is now open.
Please click the link below to register your attendance at the conference in London, UK:
http://www.cvent.com/d/95qkbm/4W
Please note: This is only for those who are attending in person - registration for those dialling-in to meetings is not required.
This Business Meeting is shaping up to be a very memorable one. We will be celebrating the momentous occasion of the 10th Anniversary of IHTSDO with a special drinks reception on the evening of Monday 24th. Professor Keith McNeil (Chief Clinical Information Officer at NHS England) has also been secured as the keynote speaker at the opening plenary that morning, which should provide a great insight into his future vision for SNOMED CT, both within the UK and also globally.
The full confirmed schedule for the event is available to download here:
http://www.snomed.org/participate/attend-our-events/snomed-international-business-meetings/
The link above also contains useful information about booking your hotel accommodation, as well as some travel advice.
Please note that due to the London Marathon we are in the unusual situation of having our Sunday sessions in a different area of London to the weekday meetings. The meetings on Sunday 23rd are being held at the Novotel Paddington. This hotel is right near Paddington station, so is a very easy transfer for those arriving via Heathrow. For the weekday meetings (24th-26th) we will return to the Amba Hotel in Charing Cross.
Please contact us by email at events@snomed.org if you have any questions – we hope to see you in London!