The first step in creating an extension is to create a module concept so that the other components and refset members in the extension can be assigned to that module. This module concept will use the namespace identifier allocated to the organization maintaining the extension. Additional modules can be created within the same extension, if and when there is a requirement to support the separate maintenance of distinct sets of components within the extension. The process of creating the module concept is similar to creating any concept. Please refer to 5.4.1 Authoring Concepts for more details on this process. 

There are a few additional rules pertaining to the module concept, its descriptions, and relationship which form part of the identification and naming of a module. The module concept, its descriptions and relationship must all have unique identifiers structured as SCTIDs which include the namespace identifier assigned to the organization maintaining the module. The module concept, its descriptions, relationship and refset members must all belong to the new module. This means all of the associated rows have a moduleId which matches the id of the new module concept. The module concept must have the definition status | Primitive|  because metadata concepts cannot be fully defined. Please see the following page for information about Module Naming Conventions.

Example

The following example uses the module concept 45991000052106 | SNOMED CT Sweden NRC maintained module|  from the Swedish extension. Note that the module concept uses the namespace identifier assigned to the Swedish NRC, 1000052.

As we can see in, the module identifier appears in the id column and in the moduleId column of the concept table. A value of | Primitive|  is used in the definitionStatusId column.

 shows the two necessary descriptions for the module concept in the description table. Note that the namespace identifier was used as part of the id.

 shows the required | Is a| relationship for the module concept in the relationship table. Note that the namespace identifier was used as part of the id.

Note that a reference set is also used to establish the language preferences for the module concept. For additional details please refer to 4.3.2.4.1 Language Reference Set.