As you may already know SNOMED International received several requests related to new content to be added for the incoming COVID vaccines. 

Although the requests were received after the new content deadlines for the January 2021 Release, there is still an opportunity to include these Urgent changes in the final Release, due to them being low impact + low risk, but of extremely high importance.   

As we're expecting more vaccine-related requests, and potentially refinements to the original requests in early January 2021 (as vaccines are approved by regulators in multiple countries), we are not including this content in the Member Release (published on 31st December 2020), but instead will incorporate the final, reviewed content in the Production Release on 31st January 2021.

If you would like to be involved in the review of this content, please get in touch with SNOMED International asap via info@snomed.org

are transitioning to a more frequent (monthly) delivery schedule for the International Edition of SNOMED CT.  The move towards more frequent releases of SNOMED CT will realise several benefits, including:

• The potential to be able to get content changes into the terminology in a shorter time frame.
• The fostering of better interoperability, as a result of entities being able to consume release content that is more aligned with other organizations.
• The prevention of circular dependencies that occur in longer projects, due to the move towards smaller, more manageable authoring projects.
• More automated validation services, as a result of the inherent removal of the Alpha/Beta stages in the Release cycle.

Whilst most users will continue unaffected (as they can simply continue to download the releases every 6 months as always), this transition will necessarily involve a few changes to process/packages:

• The Member Release period will no longer be feasible within the new rapid monthly release schedules, and so this December 2021 release will be the final Member Release of the SNOMED CT International Edition.  If you would like to continue assisting in the validation efforts of SNOMED CT there are other ways in which you can help - please contact support@snomed.org to find out more.
• Delta files have been removed from the release package - a Delta Generation service will be provided for those who need it.   The Delta Generation Tool allows users to create their own Delta between two fixed release dates - you can find it here, so please feel free to trial this in addition to the Member Release package and send us any feedback:
  • https://github.com/IHTSDO/delta-generator-tool/releases

• There is no longer any need to separate the Map files from the International Edition - the ICD-0/ICD-10 Maps will continue to be published in each Monthly International Edition release package (in line with that month's content) for the foreseeable future, unless we experience issues with the new process in Production, and they need to be removed at a later date.

NOTE:  SNOMED International worked closely with Members over the past couple of years to better understand the impact of the proposed model, and have incorporated feedback into the new processes.  This was designed to prevent any adverse impact to users, however if you have any further questions or concerns please contact us on support@snomed.org.