SNOMED CT® is the clinical terminology approved as an Information Standard.
Requirements for utilising SNOMED CT® are stated within the National Information Board document "A Framework for Action" and SNOMED CT® can be downloaded from Technology Reference Update Distribution (TRUD).
SNOMED CT® provides the clinical language that facilitates electronic communication between healthcare professionals in clear and unambiguous terms, and can be used to code, retrieve and analyse clinical data.
SNOMED CT® is comprehensive and provides clinical terms for all healthcare professions. Applications often use subsets of SNOMED CT®, known as SNOMED CT Refsets, that have been developed to support specific requirements. The NHS Data Model and Dictionary references SNOMED CT Refsets to support data reporting for specific data items.
SNOMED CT® has been distributed in Release Format 2 (RF2) since 1 April 2018. SNOMED CT® contains SNOMED CT Refsets referenced by SNOMED CT Refset ID, which are listed in the SNOMED CT Browser.
SNOMED CT® is managed and maintained internationally by SNOMED International and in the UK by NHS England.
National and International arrangements have been established to ensure there is adequate and relevant governance of SNOMED CT®, to ensure it meets the needs of healthcare in the respective jurisdictions.
Note: previous versions of SNOMED (including SNOMED RT and SNOMED 3) ceased to be licensed after April 2017 other than for historical content.
Mapping tables and guidance to enable historical data previously captured using a previous version of SNOMED, can be found on the Technology Reference Update Distribution (TRUD) at: SNOMED Antecedent Versions Data Migration.
For:
- An initial introduction to SNOMED CT®, see the SNOMED CT Starter Guide
- Those needing more comprehensive documentation, see the Technical Implementation Guide
- The SNOMED CT® Release Schedule, see SNOMED CT Release Schedule.
