SNOMED

SNOMED CT or Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine--Clinical Terms is a systematically organized computer processable collection of medical terminology covering most areas of clinical information such as diseases, findings, procedures, microorganisms, substances etc. It allows a consistent way to index, store, retrieve, and aggregate clinical data across specialties and sites of care. SNOMED CT is considered to be the most comprehensive, multilingual clinical healthcare terminology in the world.

History

SNOMED was originally developed by the College of American Pathologists (CAP), led by Roger A. Côté. The first version, SNOMED RT (Reference Terminology), was released in 1997. In 2002, the second version, SNOMED CT (Clinical Terms), was released, which combined SNOMED RT and a similar system from the United Kingdom, the Clinical Terms Version 3, formerly known as the Read Codes.

Structure

SNOMED CT is designed for use in electronic health records and other health information systems. It provides the core general terminology for electronic health records. SNOMED CT provides the core general terminology for the electronic health record (EHR) and contains more than 311,000 active concepts with unique meanings and formal logic-based definitions organized into hierarchies.

Usage

SNOMED CT is used around the world in electronic health records, health research, clinical decision support, analytics, public health reporting, health education, and many other areas. It is used in more than fifty countries.

Licensing

SNOMED CT is owned, maintained and distributed by SNOMED International, a not-for-profit organization based in London, UK. SNOMED International was previously known as the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO).

See also

• Medical classification
• Medical dictionary
• Medical informatics
• Medical record
• Health informatics

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