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Why should I, as a clinician, be involved in defining terms within SNOMED? 

The current terminology within SNOMED CT was developed by terminologists and clinicians in the 1990’s and contains in excess of 300,000 concepts. During this time, clinical practice itself has changed. Therefore, to ensure that SNOMED CT reflects current clinical practice, it essential that the content be reviewed by experts using their specific clinical expertise. This will ensure that as more clinical organisations (hospitals, general/family practices) procure electronic record systems, the language embedded in the systems will help clinicians in describing their population or the healthcare they deliver.

How do I find out what SNOMED terms are currently available? 

In order to access and view SNOMED CT, you will need to do so via a Browser, which will support visibility of the content within the terminology. There are different types that are freely available. SNOMED International provides a web-based browser, which is simple to access and use. To access the browser, please click here

What is the best method of reviewing SNOMED terms with my specialty area? 

There are several different ways of defining concepts/ terms within your specialism. Here are some tips: 

  • It may be helpful to define the 100 most common procedures or diagnoses you see within clinical practice. For most specialties this will encompass over 80% of practice and is a good place to start 
  • Decide the level of granularity or detail you need within your terms e.g. Primary augmentation rhinoplasty via an open approach with cartilage modification and implant insertion or primary augmentation rhinoplasty. Depending on your level of granularity, you will get exponentially increasing numbers of concepts and codes, which may make finding the right term within any EHRS a longer process 
  • Issues such as laterality are added as a separate concept 
  • Issues specific to diagnosis or procedure, which do not have national or international standards e.g. volume or dimensions of implants can be defined for UK specific use, but will need discussion with terminologists 

Where can I find more detail on Reference sets ?

There is a practical guide to reference sets, it can be found here Practical Guide to Reference Sets

What is SNOMED CT, and what are its main benefits?

SNOMED CT is a standardised clinical terminology for global healthcare communication, facilitating interoperability, precise coding, and improved patient care. It is a standardised clinical terminology and ontology, supporting consistent and reliable communication and mapping of granular information between people and systems. As SNOMED CT uses a meaning-based concept model that computers can understand, it enables the use of computational speed and power to support direct patient care, facilitating real-time analytics, clinical decision support and research.

SNOMED CT is too granular for clinical use and for the current finance model using HRGs. It takes time to search a condition and clinical time is pressured. There are favourites that can be saved which helps and often clinicians will use generic conditions to save time. For SNOMED CT to have full benefits it needs to be used correctly

SNOMED CT is designed to be used by clinicians in a number of different specialities, capacities and sectors. However, as you say, it must be appropriately implemented within an electronic health record to maximise usage and benefits. Unfortunately, this is often overlooked.

One method for improving usability is to use favourites and quick select buttons. I would also suggest also using a terminology server to create intensional value sets, especially for critical features such as problem and procedure lists. This will effectively constrain the terminology where desired and will also remove the risk of human error in manually maintaining value sets. Successfully aligning record and terminology services will maximise the benefits of SNOMED CT implementation.

SNOMED CT is broader than ICD and SNOMED CT define diagnosis, Clinical terms in different languages and convert it to International language

SNOMED CT defines a number of clinical entities, ranging from body structures, events and organisms through to diagnoses. This makes the terminology incredibly versatile, and as you say the advantage of cross country interoperability is hugely beneficial. This feature of SNOMED CT means not only can we develop the terminology in a global community, but also this is critical to unlocking global data interoperability. This will result in faster and more accurate proliferation of advanced analytics and artificial intelligence in healthcare.