SNOMED International has a number of voluntary Advisory Groups designed to provide expert advice on the development and implementation of its products and services. See IHTSDO Advisory Group Manual Home for information on each of the groups.
At this time, SNOMED International is seeking volunteers to serve on the following Advisory Group:
- Modeling (MAG)
Should the nomination be a Member-based nomination (i.e., for positions on the Content Managers Advisory Group, the Tooling User Advisory Group, and the E-Learning Advisory Group) kindly contact ag@snomed.org directly.
How do I apply for a position on a SNOMED International Advisory Group?
Selection Process
Anyone can apply. The deadline for submitting a nomination is Monday, 21 June 2021. Applications will be reviewed by the Modelling AG Chairs and their recommendations will be put forward to the CEO for final approval. All candidates will be notified of the results by email early July.
Application Checklist
Applicants, please make sure you include the following items in your email submission to ag@snomed.org:
- Completed Nomination Form, including your declaration of interest and self-assessment of relevant skills per the applicable skills matrix (see document below)
- Your CV (resume)
Please contact ag@snomed.org with questions, or for additional information on the Advisory Group nomination process.
SNOMED International’s 2020 Annual Report, “A new chapter powered by a global coalition,” demonstrates the vast breadth of progress made possible by the will of a growing and committed community. The start of the year was marked by the delivery of necessary COVID-19 terminology to equip healthcare systems globally in their management of the pandemic, an activity which continued steadily throughout the year. Further, 2020 marked the first year of a new five-year strategy, the focus of which tackled many imperatives for the organization’s product and services enhancement and innovation.
The 2020 Annual Report features:
- Message from the General Assembly Chair, Alex Elias, Management Board Chair, Joanne Burns, and CEO, Don Sweete
- Progress against 2020-2025 Strategy
- 2020 COVID-19 response
- SNOMED CT product and service quality, enhancements and partners
- Global engagement activities across stakeholders
- Featured Member success stories
- Governance recap featuring QnA's with the Community of Practice
Read the release and 2020 Annual Report. Contact info@snomed.org with any inquiries.
Thank you to all who made the time to attend the April 2021 Business Meetings. A virtual gathering, the agenda was active with more than 400 from our community participating in governance, advisory, project and clinical reference group meetings.
The Open General Assembly, led by Management Board Chair, Joanne Burns, and General Assembly Chair, Alex Elias, was kicked off with a keynote by Dr. Tom Hughes as he shared his insights, development and use of the SNOMED CT enabled Emergency Care Data Set.
Resources from these sessions, including the SNOMED CT Community Updates, have been made available here.
For more information, please contact events@snomed.org.
London, United Kingdom and Geneva, Switzerland
April 29, 2021
SNOMED International and the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) are announcing the release of important new maps between global medical terminologies SNOMED CT and MedDRA. This collaborative effort is the first deliverable of a new agreement entered into between SNOMED International and ICH.
This joint effort has produced two independent maps (MedDRA to SNOMED CT and SNOMED CT to MedDRA) which have been derived from frequently used and key pharmacovigilance MedDRA terms identified from the European Medicines Agency and the UK’s Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. In addition, a set of COVID-19 related terms are also included in the first production release of the maps to capture important aspects of the pandemic.
For more information on the agreement or the maps, contact info@snomed.org.
Visit snomed.org for more information on the SNOMED CT to MedDRA and MedDRA to SNOMED CT maps, along with our other map products.
Posted on behalf of Don Sweete, CEO, SNOMED International
First, I would like to extend my thanks to you for the unprecedented participation at last week’s Business Meetings. While it can never replace in-person collaboration, the SNOMED CT community continues to demonstrate its ongoing commitment.
As part of our discussions at last week’s Business Meetings, SNOMED International has made the decision to deliver the October 2021 Business Meetings and SNOMED CT Expo as entirely virtual events. Although we were all looking forward to seeing each other after this extended period of separation, the health and well-being of our Members, the broader SNOMED CT community, employees and other stakeholders is paramount.
We are confident we are acting in the best interests of our global community.
The good news is that this gives us the opportunity to build on the success of last year’s virtual Expo, which saw record attendance and received rave reviews from attendees. Our experience with hosting both last year’s Expo and last week’s Business Meetings equips us with the insights we need to provide an even more impactful conference experience for attendees and presenters in October.
Holding a fully virtual event also enables a much broader audience to participate than typically would attend in person, as we saw last year. Capturing sessions and making them available for continued viewing gives us an even greater potential reach.
We have extended our deadline to accept abstracts for the Expo until May 7, 2021, so I encourage you to reach out to your colleagues you think might be interested and ask them to consider submitting. For inspiration, view the video on our Expo site profiling four of last year’s presenters talking about why they submitted and how presenting benefitted them and their organizations.
SNOMED International thanks you for your ongoing commitment,
Don Sweete
Posted on behalf of Don Sweete, CEO, SNOMED International
I'd like to personally welcome you to the start of the April 2021 Business Meetings. While our meeting is once again virtual, there is a wealth of activity taking place over the next 4 days, satisfying the governance and advisory aspects of an in-person business meeting.
Remember that you can locate the schedule of these governance, advisory, project and clinical reference group meetings via the event registration page or within the platform itself.
Accessing Sessions:
All registered attendees will have received a personalized email on Friday, and again Monday with your credentials for the platform supporting the business meetings. This includes an auto entry link to the Business Meetings platform, which is the easiest way to gain entry. In the event of issues, this email also includes your login and PIN.
Forgot to register? Please register here and you will receive your entry credentials via email. If you experience issues, please contact events@snomed.org immediately for support.Please explore the new platform for enhanced networking opportunities with your SNOMED CT community.
Business Meeting Highlights:
Governance
This April's Open General Assembly on Tuesday April 20, 12:00 - 14:00 UTC, will commence with keynote speaker, Dr. Tom Hughes and his presentation on the NHS Emergency Care Data Set. In the meeting to follow, General Assembly representatives of the organization are presented with and vote on SNOMED CT statutory matters.
Closed meetings of the General Assembly, Management Board, and Member Forum round out the Governance meetings this week.
Advisory, Project and Clinical Meetings:
Advisory & Project
Modeling, Content Managers, Terminology Release, Editorial, and E-Learning comprise the Advisory Group element of the schedule. The Managed Service User Group, a sub-group of the Tooling User Advisory Group, is also scheduled to meet. Project Groups meeting include Observables, French Translation, SNOMED on FHIR, Cancer Synoptic Reporting and SNOMED CT Computable Languages.
Clinical
In addition to Anesthesia, Mental & Behavioural Health, Nutrition Care Process, Dentistry, Nursing, and Genomics & Precision Medicine Clinical Reference Group meetings, the Clinical Engagement group has organized a "SNOMED for Clinicians" session on Thursday April 22nd. Featured keynote speaker, Dr. Tejal Shah, Lecturer at the School of Computing at Newcastle University, will share her clinical experiences implementing SNOMED CT.
Refer to the full program here
Community Updates:
To brief the Community on the activities of the organization and Membership since October 2020, we have shared a Community Updates document for your review and reference. Please reach out to the respective subject matter experts of the organization with your queries at the meetings this week, or directly via info@snomed.org.
I extend my thanks for your ongoing contributions and support and I look forward to seeing you this week.
- Don
Welcome Video and Platform Overview:
Community Updates Video:
This year's Community Updates have been presented by representatives of the organization in the below linked video:
A .pdf document of this April's Community Updates has also been provided below:
Dear SNOMED CT Community Members,
We are busy preparing the welcome packages for the forthcoming April 2021 Business Meetings and would like to remind you that this Wednesday (March 31st) is the deadline for ensuring you are on the list to receive one.
As previously announced, all attendees of the event must register online to gain access to meetings.
If you have yet to sign up and you intend to attend any of the available sessions, please register via the button below as soon as possible:
Further information can be found in our previous reminder post.
Questions? Please contact us via events@snomed.org
"See" you there!
The SNOMED International Events Team
Dear SNOMED CT Community and staff members,
We would like to remind all those who wish to attend the forthcoming virtual April 2021 Business Meetings (including representatives on our Governance groups) that you must register online to gain access to meetings.
Please click here to view the full event schedule.
If you have yet to do so, and intend to attend any of the available sessions, please register via the link below at your nearest convenience:
https://snomed.eventsair.com/snomed-international-april-2021-business-meetings
Logging in to the simplified virtual platform will give you instant access to the following:
- Entry to all sessions that are available to you - with no individual Zoom links needed
- The keynote by Dr Tom Hughes at 12:00 UTC on Tues 20th (followed by the Open General Assembly)
- Our Networking Hub, where you can see who else is online and connect with other attendees via messaging, live chat and/or 1:1 video calls
- The SNOMED CT for Clinicians webinar (12:00-15:00 UTC on Thurs 22nd), including an esteemed keynote speaker
- A Resource Gallery of on-demand content including the April 2021 Community Updates, plus a library of educational videos for clinicians
If you need any further incentive, please bear in mind that early registration (before March 31, 2021) puts you in the running to receive a welcome pack of goodies that you don't want to miss 
Questions? Please contact us via events@snomed.org
"See" you there!
The SNOMED International Events Team
A sneak peak at our virtual platform - a simple solution for the Business Meetings:
SNOMED International is pleased to announce that registration for the forthcoming April 2021 Business Meetings is now open.
As previously announced, this event will be held as a virtual conference from April 19-22, 2021.
The Business Meetings will support discussion, knowledge exchange and planning of the organization's governance and advisory bodies, as well as working groups completing a defined set of deliverables. Many of the meetings are open to observers, while some are closed sessions. There will also be multimedia SNOMED CT Community Updates, a featured Keynote speaker, on-demand Education sessions, and the Open General Assembly - open to all to attend.
An enhanced events platform and mobile app will provide a cohesive experience for attendees, with seamless Zoom integration and increased networking functionality (such as 1:1 video chat and the ability to set up spontaneous breakout groups).
Please visit the events website below to view the full program and register your attendance:
REGISTER NOW
Once registered, links to the platform and app will be sent to you before the event opens.
The SNOMED CT Expo 2021 call for abstracts is now open.
SNOMED CT implementers and users: We want you!
Do you have an interesting and informative SNOMED CT experience to share? Want to broaden your network, and engage and connect with our global community? Consider submitting an abstract for this October’s conference - Our 10th anniversary of hosting SNOMED CT-focused events.
Submit here by April 30, 2021
All submissions will be entered into a weekly prize draw. Draws will be made each Friday at 17:00 Portugal/UK time between now and April 30. Those whose submissions have been accepted will be notified on June 4, 2021.
Scheduled for October 28 and 29, 2021, this year’s “hybrid” Expo will be held both in Lisbon, Portugal, and online — extending the reach of the event and providing the opportunity for even more people to participate, learn and interact in whatever mode best suits them.
We continue to monitor the global pandemic and its impact on international travel and will announce any change to these plans in the coming months.
SNOMED CT Expo 2021 Sponsorship and Exhibition Prospectus now available.
Industry leaders and innovators:
Learn more about the opportunities and benefits of sponsoring our plenaries, e-poster displays, a networking reception or onsite charging stations.
Exhibitors, learn how you can showcase your products and services, network with a global community of SNOMED CT users and optimize your participation through our extensive marketing activities.
View the prospectus
The Production Release of the January 2021 SNOMED CT® International Edition was made available on January 31, 2021.
What’s new?
The January 2021 release contains 3,559 new concepts and 5,413 changes within SNOMED CT’s 350,000+ concepts. The release includes vaccine content to support the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic, contributions from Kaiser Permanente’s Convergent Medical Terminology (CMT), Global Medical Device Nomenclature Agency (GMDNA), Orphanet and other domain specific collaborations as well as requests received from submitters via SNOMED International’s Content Request System.
SNOMED CT has added 500 new concepts for the purposes of supporting our Members in their efforts to map from SNOMED CT to ICD-11 and within the imaging domain; specifically, for angiography, SNOMED CT has remodelled 1,400 concepts to improve definitions for radiologists delivering clinical assurance that each concept is properly defined. A prime example of the mature use of SNOMED CT in the research domain, this enhancement provides a better way of searching and finding angiography procedures to support evidence-based decision making.
Within the January 31, 2021 Release, new content associated with project-driven initiatives reflect anatomy changes to support Cancer Synoptic Reporting and the addition of food insecurity concepts to existing Social Determinants of Health content from the consensus-driven standards being developed by the Gravity Project. Additional items that impact each release are updates to the SNOMED CT derived maps such as ICD-10 and ICD-O, the details of which have been included in the January 31, 2021 SNOMED CT International Edition Release Notes.
The January 2021 International Edition Release continues to be produced from the organization’s FHIR-enabled terminology server, Snowstorm, a major technical milestone achieved a year ago and a core focus of the organization’s recently released 2020-2025 organization strategy.
A continued focus on COVID-19 in 2021
As part of the organization’s ongoing global effort as it pertains to the Coronavirus pandemic, SNOMED International has received several requests for new vaccine content as regulators in multiple countries have approved these vaccines.
The January 31, 2021 International Edition Release of SNOMED CT includes 25+ new concepts added to support the vaccination administration process across finding, event, disorder, medicinal product, procedure, and situation hierarchies. All COVID-19 vaccine concepts have also been added to SNOMED International’s freely accessible Global Patient Set. Details about new and existing COVID-19 concepts are available from SNOMED International’s COVID-19 Related Content Page.
With vaccine-related requests and refinements submitted to SNOMED International early in January 2021, it is significant to note that vaccine content was not added to the December 31, 2020 Member Release, but instead to the final reviewed content in the January 31, 2021 Production Release. While being of extremely high importance to users of SNOMED CT globally, these new concepts have been deemed to be of low impact and low risk to the release process.
SNOMED CT’s COVID-19 content and resources
Efforts in 2020 to support health systems globally in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic have included a range of product content, guidance, and collaboration efforts and the following COVID-19 resources, inclusive of our specific January, March and July 2020 International Edition Releases of SNOMED CT, remain available:
- All added COVID-19 descriptions and concepts
- An updated SNOMED CT to ICD-10 map
- Guidance for COVID-19 data coding using SNOMED CT based on international Member contributions
- All COVID-19 and related SNOMED CT content added to the freely accessible Global Patient Set
- Participation in the COVID-19 Interoperability Alliance and COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition, as well as an open exchange in addressing the pandemic among the ecosystem of health information standards organizations as part of the Joint Initiative Council.
Where can I obtain the SNOMED CT International Edition Release?
A license is required to download and use SNOMED CT. Information and resources pertaining to the January 2021 SNOMED CT International Edition Release is located on our releases page.
If you have any questions about the January 2021 International Edition or have difficulties downloading the files from the distribution site, please contact SNOMED International at support@snomed.org with “January 2021 International Edition Release question” in the subject line.
For general information or inquiries, please contact info@snomed.org.
Access the January 2021 Release & Release Notes
SENT ON BEHALF OF DON SWEETE
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, SNOMED International recognizes the continued risk to health and wellbeing the virus poses to each facet of our global community. This reality, coupled with international travel restrictions has made many locations worldwide not in a position to host our April Business Meetings.
The General Assembly Executive, Management Board and I have therefore made the decision to hold the forthcoming Business Meetings as a fully virtual event from April 19-22, 2021.
The Communications Team is currently configuring new events tooling, including an enhanced events platform and mobile app that will provide a cohesive experience for our community. The platform will focus on seamless Zoom integration, and has increased networking functionality for our attendees, like 1:1 video chat and the ability to set up spontaneous breakout groups.
This means that the April 2021 Business Meetings will be coordinated with more structure than those held virtually in 2020, including a formal registration process, central platform and schedule, multimedia SNOMED CT Community Updates, featured Keynote speaker and our Open General Assembly, open to all to attend.
We encourage the Chairs of our working groups to request meeting time via this form if you have yet to do so.
Registration for the event is set to open in mid February, when further announcements will be sent. Currently, we plan to next convene face to face for the October Business Meetings and SNOMED CT Expo 2021 in Lisbon, Portugal from October 23-29. This decision will continue to be assessed as the global situation persists.
I thank you for your ongoing support and encourage you to reach out to us with any questions or inquiries you have as a result of this decision.
Sincerely,
Don Sweete
CEO, SNOMED International
London, United Kingdom, January 6, 2021 -- Germany’s Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) has announced their membership in SNOMED International for national use of SNOMED CT from the beginning of January 2021.
SNOMED CT, the world’s most comprehensive clinical terminology and a recognized critical element for the electronic exchange of health data, is an important building block to achieve Germany’s digitization initiative. Effective January 1, 2021, German users can register to request a free license for use of SNOMED CT by visiting the BfArM’s National Release Center website.
BfArM President Prof. Dr. Karl Broich shares, “with SNOMED CT, the digitization of the healthcare system in Germany continues. As an international standardized health terminology, SNOMED CT is an important prerequisite for the reliable use and exchange of medical data from various sources to enable clinical and research activities. This is how we accelerate innovative developments and deliver new types of care options more quickly to patients.”
Read the full release to learn more. Visit the BfArM SNOMED CT website to gain a better understanding of Germany's plan to utilize SNOMED CT.
Germany's Member page is being finalized with our German NRC and will be posted shortly. For more information, please contact info@snomed.org.
Wrapping up 2020 and looking forward to an exciting 2021
By Don Sweete, CEO
As 2020 winds to a close, it’s safe to say that this has been a year like no other in recent memory. Like you, all of us at SNOMED International have experienced the loss of everyday life as we know it and the global health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
I am thankful that SNOMED International has found a way to collaborate with our Members, partners and community of practice to contribute to the heroic efforts of scientists, researchers and clinicians to diagnose, treat and contain the coronavirus. We acted quickly early in the year to update SNOMED CT with COVID-19 content, enabling real-time use by stakeholders during the pandemic, and made this content freely available in the Global Patient Set. We are an organization that strongly supports collaboration. In this spirit, we participated in the COVID-19 Interoperability Alliance and the COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition, both of which offer resources for clinical, demographic and administrative concept use relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A growing community driven by strategy
On a positive note, we kicked off our 2020-2025 Strategy in January, laying the foundation for many product enhancements and innovations. We also welcomed the Republic of Korea to the SNOMED International family, and expect to have additional new Members to announce in early 2021.
As an organization, we also mourned the passing of our Management Board Chair, Lady Barbara Judge CBE, whose positive impact will live on forever, even as we continue to miss her energetic presence, and welcomed new Members of our Management Board to guide us through the subsequent years of our Strategy.
Another achievement I am proud of this year is our commitment to enhancing SNOMED CT’s content to meet evolving global needs. Social determinants of health content coverage within SNOMED CT is a perfect example of this. Initiated this year with a project slated to wrap up in 2022, we expect it will enable a much broader and more holistic view of not just individuals but entire populations.
Better together
We always seek to strengthen our collaborations and this year marked a number of partnership-related successes. This August, we announced a groundbreaking agreement with the International Council of Nurses providing for the International Classification for Nursing Practice to be managed, produced, released and distributed by SNOMED International. We also teamed up with the American Medical Association to demonstrate how the AMA’s Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) and SNOMED CT work together to deliver better outcomes and enhanced resource utilization throughout the health ecosystem.
A virtual SNOMED CT Expo
Making the call to substitute the in-person annual SNOMED CT conference with an entirely virtual event was tough, but it was the right thing to do to keep everyone safe. Judging from the record number of registrants and the overwhelmingly positive feedback, it appears those who attended found it engaging, interesting and useful. If you missed the conference, the virtual platform is available until early January and you can access it here.
Another key activity from 2020 is the launch of our SNOMED CT Value Series, which debuted at the virtual Expo. The first chapter features the New Zealand Canterbury District Health Board. You can view the videos in the virtual Expo platform or on our YouTube channel. Stay tuned in 2021 for more great examples of how health care organizations around the globe are using SNOMED CT to drive benefits for their patients/citizens and their health care systems.
Thank you!
As 2020 draws to a close, I want to thank everyone who has been a part of all of this work and progress, whether you attended one of our webinars, contributed to SNOMED CT content development, worked with us as a partner, joined as a Member country or participated in any other way. I would like to offer a special thank you to the Board and our Members for their continuing support along with the staff who worked tirelessly all year. We look forward to announcing more achievements on our five-year strategy in 2021 and we hope you will continue to be a part of our big global family!
In closing I wish everyone a fun, festive and safe holiday season.
Have a comment about this post? We’d love to hear from you.
The Q4 issue of The Concept is available now
Read up on recent SNOMED CT news items to cap off 2020.
Highlights include a 2020 GPS recap, transition to concrete domains and an invite to watch the SNOMED CT value series...
Released November 23, 2020
SNOMED International has released a series of videos that demonstrate the value that a healthcare system is deriving from implementing and using SNOMED CT.
The first chapter of the SNOMED CT Value Series, which focuses on New Zealand’s Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB), highlights the advances the organization has made in realizing its vision of a connected, integrated system that supports the country’s Healthy Ageing strategy and enables it to better serve its population.
There is more energy than ever in rolling out SNOMED CT as a key clinical information standard for an equitable New Zealand health and disability system, one that is data-driven and digitally enabled.
SNOMED CT: A piece of the digital health ecosystem as CDHB realizes multiple benefits
- 30 percent lower emergency department use than the national average
- 30 percent lower acute medical admission rate than the national average
- Held 2019 bed use to same numbers as in 2007 while serving a population that had grown by 80,000
- Identified vertebral fracture patients who had not received care or whose cases had been misclassified
- Saved a year of clinician time by automating previously manual processes
- Interoperable across best-of-breed systems
- Ability to link clinical tools via a SNOMED code
- Ability to search for pathways and hierarchies and improved user search experience
Read the full release and learn more about the Value Series. Contact comms@snomed.org with any inquiries.
November 4, 2020
For over a year, SNOMED International has proposed to the Community of Practice an enhancement to SNOMED CT by adding the capability to express Concrete Domain values. This enhancement will initially target improvements in the Pharmaceutical / biologic product hierarchy. This feature will be used to better express strengths and concentrations of clinical drugs as well as ingredient counts, specifically supplying clinical drug strengths as true numbers, rather than using the existing work-around of concepts which represent those numbers.
Following on from past communications, SNOMED International is providing more technical details of the planned transition. Please see here for details of the current proposed technical changes. Throughout this transition, note that the technical proposal is still in the consultation stage, and changes may still be made before the final solution is implemented.
The transition to concrete domains has been discussed and agreed upon with numerous stakeholders from the community, and as such is targeted to be implemented over the course of the next two International Release cycles.
In Q1, 2021, A technical preview will be published in line with the January 2021 International Edition, with drug concept strengths and counts expressed as concrete values in the new Relationships file, and currently planned to be a full RF2 International Edition package.
Targeted for Q3 2021, the July 2021 International Edition will be the first release after the transition to Concrete Domains, which will impact inferred relationship file changes and stated axiom file changes to the RF2 package as well as making additional features available in the International Edition. A detailed account of these changes can be reviewed on SNOMED International’s January 2021 Early Visibility Release Notice page by following the link and searching “concrete domains.”
If you foresee any critical issues with the transition plans, or have any questions regarding any of these upcoming changes, please contact us immediately at support@snomed.org with “Concrete Domains transition question” in the subject line.