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    tSNOMED CT
    features

  • Exploring Exploring 

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    tSNOMED CT

  • Gloss
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    tSNOMED CT
    design and development

  • Gloss
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    tSNOMED CT
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    tcomponents
     components and
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    thierarchies

  • SNOMED CT characteristics
  • SNOMED CT supporting different languages
  • SNOMED CT products and services

Why is this important?

An awareness of

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tSNOMED CT
features, 
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tcomponents
, characteristics and products provides an initial foundation on which to build greater understanding. It also informs discussions leading to decisions about adoption, implementation and use of this terminology.

What is this?

SNOMED CT Features

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tSNOMED CT
:

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Implementation requires an understanding of the way that

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tSNOMED CT
 content is represented by
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tcomponents
 and supported by
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treference sets
 (Refsets).

Exploring SNOMED CT

While reading the guide, you may find it useful to explore the content of

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tSNOMED CT
. You can do this using one of a range of online
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tbrowsers
listed on our web site at http://snomed.org/browsers. Note that the listed
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tbrowsers
 are not endorsed by
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tSNOMED International
 and they should only be used to a get feel for the content and structure of the terminology. It is useful to experiment with several different
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tbrowsers
 as they vary in the way they present particular features of the terminology.

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Gliffy Diagram
displayNameSNOMEDOverview
nameSNOMEDOverview
pagePin3

SNOMED CT Design and Development

SNOMED CT Components

SNOMED CT is a core clinical healthcare terminology that contains

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tconcepts
with unique meanings and formal logic based definitions organized into
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thierarchies
.
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tSNOMED CT
 content is represented using three types of
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tcomponents
:

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These

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tcomponents
 are supplemented by
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treference sets
, which provide additional flexible features and enable configuration of the terminology to address different requirements.

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Concepts

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tSNOMED CT concepts
represent clinical thoughts, ranging from |abscess| to |zygote|. Every
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tconcept
 has a unique numeric
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tconcept identifier
. Within each
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thierarchy,
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tconcepts
are organized from the general to the more detailed. This allows detailed clinical data to be recorded and later accessed or aggregated at a more general level.

Descriptions

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tSNOMED CT descriptions
link appropriate human readable terms to
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tconcepts
. A
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tconcept
 can have several associated
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tdescriptions
, each representing a
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tsynonym
 that describes the same clinical concept. Each
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ttranslation
 of
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tSNOMED CT
 includes an additional set of
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tdescriptions
, which link
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tterms
 in another
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tlanguage
 to the same
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tSNOMED CT concepts
. Every
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tdescription
 has a unique numeric
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tdescription identifier.

Relationships

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tSNOMED CT relationships
 link concepts to other
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tconcepts
 whose meaning is related in some way. These
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trelationships
 provide formal definitions and other properties of the
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tconcept
. One type of
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trelationship
is the
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tis a
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relationship which relates a
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tconcept
to more general
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tconcepts
. These 
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tis a
GlosTermis a
relationships define the
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thierarchy
of
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tSNOMED CT concepts.

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Every

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trelationship
 has a unique numeric
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trelationship
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tidentifier.

Reference sets

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tReference sets
(Refsets) are a flexible standard approach used by
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tSNOMED CT
 to support a variety of requirements for customization and enhancement of
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tSNOMED CT
. These include the representation of
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tsubsets
, language preferences for use of particular
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tterms
 and
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tmapping
 from or to other code systems. Every
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treference set
 has a unique numeric
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tconcept identifier.

SNOMED CT Hierarchies

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tSNOMED CT concepts
 are organized in hierarchies. Within a
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thierarchy
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tconcepts
range from the more general to the more detailed. Related
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tconcepts
 in the
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thierarchy
are linked using the |is a| relationship.

  • Examples of some of the hierarchies include |clinical finding|, |procedure|, |observable entity|, |body structure| and |organism|.

SNOMED CT Characteristics - Comprehensive, Scalable and Flexible

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tSNOMED CT
has a broad coverage of health related topics. It can be used to describe a patient's medical history, the details of an orthopedic procedure, the spread of epidemics, and much more. At the same time, the terminology has an unmatched depth, which enables clinicians to record data at the appropriate level of granularity.

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When individual jurisdictions have needs beyond those that can be reflected in a global terminology, perhaps due to requirements in local legislation, they can develop local or national

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textensions
. Thus, even though
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tSNOMED CT
 is global in scope, it can be adapted to each country's or areas requirements.
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tSNOMED CT
 maps work to provide explicit links to health related classifications and coding schemes in use around the world, e.g.
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tstatistical classifications
 such as
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t ICD-9-CM,
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tICD-10
, and
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tICD-O3
. Maps to or from several national code systems are also available from, or under development, by
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tMembers
. Maps to or from clinical domain specific code systems are also maintained by specialty groups with which
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tSNOMED International
 has collaborative agreement. Maps facilitate reuse of
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tSNOMED CT
 based clinical data for other purposes, such as reimbursement or statistical reporting.

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Supporting Different Languages

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tSNOMED CT
 is a multinational, multilingual terminology. It has a built-in framework to manage different
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tlanguages
 and
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tdialects
. The
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tInternational Release
 includes a set of language independent
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tconcepts
 and
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trelationships
. Today,
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tSNOMED CT
 is available in US English, UK English, Spanish, Danish and Swedish. Partial
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ttranslations
 into Canadian French, Lithuanian, and several other
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tlanguages
 are currently taking place, and further
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tlanguage
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ttranslations
are being planned by
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tMembers.
The basic objective of any
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tSNOMED CT
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ttranslation
 is to provide accurate representations of
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tSNOMED CT concepts
 in a way that is understandable, usable, and safe.
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tTranslation
must be
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tconcept
 based. Translators need to analyse
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tconcepts
based on the
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tfully specified name
 and take account of its position within the
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thierarchy
, its
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tdescriptions
, and its
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trelationships
 to other
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tconcepts
. This enables a meaningful
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ttranslation
 of a
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tconcept
 based on phrases that are well used and clearly understood in all countries.
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tSNOMED International
 maintains guidelines and other materials to support countries undertaking translations.

SNOMED CT Products and Services

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tMembers
 and organizations covered by the SNOMED CT
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tAffiliate License
 have access to a range of products and services, including:

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