The change from Special Interest Groups to Clinical Reference Groups was agreed by the Management Board in late 2016. The key drivers for the change were:
1.Clinical engagement strategy
- Increase profile of SNOMED CT globally across all clinical groups
- Requirement to collaborate inter and multi professionally on content development and implementation
- Requirement for effective sharing and distribution of good practice
- Improved communication to a global network of clinicians▪Specification of clinical requirements for SNOMED International prioritization
2.Increasing demand from clinical bodies to have a “relationship” with SNOMED International
3.Local and national strategies specifyingmore clinical validation of SNOMED CT
4.Putting in place 100+ clinical SIG’s tocover all specialties wasnot sustainable for SNOMED International
There was a requirement to sustainable and scalable solution providing a mechanism for different levels of engagement and knowledge, global, cross working/multidisciplinary and supporting both individuals and group engagement.
Confluence has provided an ideal platform for supporting discussion and sharing of information from specific specialtiesand topic areas. A framework has been established for each group a the existing Special Interest Groups have now all migrated and new groups established.
An introduction to Clinical Reference Groups can be found at:https://confluence.ihtsdotools.org/display/CP/Introduction+-+Clinical+Reference+Groupsand the specific groups are listed in the directory below from which you can then find out more about each individual grouphttps://confluence.ihtsdotools.org/display/CP/Directory+-+Clinical+Reference+Groups.
The establishment of Clinical Reference Groups is being driven by Clinical Groups globally who are being exposed to the use of SNOMED CT locally and want to engage with SNOMED International in order to ensure that the content of SNOMED CT is clinically relevant and update to date.Unless the groups have been established as a result of particular agreed work plan items e.g. Dentistry and Nursing, the groups are focused on reviewing existing content and requesting changes through the CRS system –thus providing quality assurance and content validation. Where large areas of work are identified, there is a process for documenting the requirements and raising these to SNOMED International to be processed for consideration.