Release File Specification

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This section covers several general topics related to SNOMED CT

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trelease packages
and
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trelease files
including:

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This section covers several general topics related to SNOMED CT release files. 

The next following two sections provide the detailed specifications of the release files:.

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  •  contains details of release files that represent the main SNOMED CT components:

    • Concepts

    • Descriptions

    • Relationships

...

...

  •  contains details of release files that customize and enhance SNOMED CT by representing:
    • Subsets of concepts and descriptions
    • Maps to other code systems
    • Language and dialect preferences for different terms
    • Annotation of components
    • Associations between components
    • Other forms of configuration and extensibility

Additional information is provided in the DOCTSG, a separate document that includes guidance on Representing Terminology Data and Importing SNOMED CT Release Files.


Info
titleHistorical Note on Current and Previous Release File Formats

The standard format in which 

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tSNOMED CT
has been distributed since 2012 is known as 
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tRelease Format 2
(RF2). It was developed in response to extensive feedback on the original release file format, now known as
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tRelease Format 1
(RF1), in which
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tSNOMED CT
was distributed between its first release in 2002 and 2012. The SNOMED CT International Edition is no longer distributed in RF1. However, a conversion tool to general RF1 style files from the RF2 release files was made available during a transition period.

The key enhancements in

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tRF2
were:

  • More robust and consistent version representation;
  • Inclusion of a moduleId and module dependency mechanism, which together enable modularization of releases while representing dependencies between modules;

  • Gloss
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    tReference sets
    to provide an extensible and versionable way to configure 
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    tSNOMED CT.
    Including support for subsets, maps, annotations, alternative hierarchies, etc.;

  • Use of an added

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    thierarchy
    to represent metadata about the structure of
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    tSNOMED CT
    itself.

In common with the earlier release format

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tRF2
specifies files that: 

  • Represent the components of
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    tSNOMED CT:
    (concepts, descriptions and relationships)

  • Provide standard representations for subsets, language preferences and maps to other codes and classifications.

  • Are distributed as tab-delimited text files - which represent character content in accordance with the  Unicode UTF-8 specification;

  • Use

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    tSNOMED CT Identifiers
    as the permanent
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    tIdentifier
    of released core components;

    • Support
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    textensions
    to the
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    tInternational Release
    using
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    tnamespaces
    allocated to licensees to denote the provenance of added components and to ensure
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    tIdentifier
    uniqueness

    RF1 format is now deprecated and no longer supported.


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