SNOMED CT authoring tools support the creation of new SNOMED CT concepts, with descriptions and concept definitions that conform to the SNOMED CT Editorial Guidelines and the SNOMED CT Concept Model.

SNOMED CT was designed to be an extensible terminology. SNOMED CT extensions can expand the coverage of the International Edition by creating additional content to satisfy national or local requirements. The SNOMED CT Concept Model ensures that content created in extensions continues to be logically compatible with the International Edition, and automated comparisons between content from different editions can be performed.

Many Member countries publish national extensions that include concepts necessary to support national use cases. It is also possible to maintain local extensions, which satisfy use cases directly related to a specific implementation of SNOMED CT. Content authored in an extension of SNOMED CT can be shared with users using RF2 file packages, or via a shared terminology server for direct implementation use.

SNOMED CT International Authoring Platform

The SNOMED International Authoring Platform (AP) is a web browser application designed for SNOMED CT collaborative content authoring (see screen shot below).

The AP is used to maintain the SNOMED CT International Edition and several national extensions. It supports the authoring process through concept editing, classification, validation, review and change approval. These features are supplemented by SNOMED CT taxonomy search and browsing directly within the platform, and the ability to save author-defined lists of concepts for subsequent editing. The authoring of concept definitions is supported by Machine Readable Concept Model (MRCM) rules and the use of authoring templates. Authoring activities are task-based, including a review process, promotion, and rebasing with dependencies updates. The AP uses the Snowstorm terminology server at the backend to provide the terminology services required for its SNOMED CT search, query and authoring tasks.

SNOMED International offers the AP to Members as part of an optional Managed Service. For more information please refer to the links below.

• Authoring platform: https://authoring.ihtsdotools.org 
• User guide: https://confluence.ihtsdotools.org/display/SIAPUG
• Source code: https://github.com/IHTSDO/authoring-ui
• Managed service portal: https://confluence.ihtsdotools.org/display/MS

Other Authoring Tools

Other SNOMED CT authoring tools are available, as listed below.

Please note that this list of authoring tools is provided in alphabetical order. To request the addition or removal of an authoring tool to/from this list, please submit a request via the 'Feedback' button at the bottom of this page.