Although the main focus of the renewed collaboration agreement is the release of the LOINC Ontology, it also continues the work initiated in 2022, including the adoption of working practices that facilitate the use and interoperability of the terminology standards both organizations produce. It will also focus on ensuring that stakeholders/users globally have clear direction on the use of the standards, whether together or individually, and that an effective interoperability solution is available to users when both standards are implemented in the same system.
The upcoming release is the result of the renewed collaboration between the two organizations that began in 2022 and continued in 2023 with the technical preview of the ontology, building on the relationship formed more than a decade ago.
The ontology, colloquially referred to as the LOINC Extension, is slated for release at the end of March 2025 and will initially cover quantitative laboratory tests. After the initial production release, Regenstrief plans to issue the release twice a year (March and September) following the twice annual LOINC release. To keep up to date on important project news including informational release webinars, subscribe to receive updates.
The March 2025 release will include more than 35,000 concepts, including quantitative lab tests and the top 200 most used lab tests ordered. Domains of information (lab, clinical, documents, radiology, survey instruments) will be added incrementally. We will link existing SNOMED CT concepts to existing LOINC content where applicable and new LOINC codes will be created as needed. LOINC Parts will be mapped to SNOMED concepts, and new SNOMED CT concepts will be created as needed.
Read the news release here
You can also attend a free webinar on the extension hosted by Regenstrief on Tuesday, March 25, from 09:30-11:00 EDT / 13:30-15:00 UTC
SNOMED International has signed a five-year collaboration agreement with openEHR, a non-profit initiative that develops open standards for electronic health records to improve data interoperability, management, and reuse, to improve data interoperability, management, and reuse. The agreement responds to a need the openEHR community has identified to include SNOMED CT in openEHR archetypes and to ensure users of those archetypes employ an international terminology standard for interoperability and SNOMED CT. It will also facilitate the ability to represent clinical content consistently and enable openEHR to develop and include SNOMED CT concepts and codes associated with openEHR archetypes. Read the release here: https://www.snomed.org/news/snomed-international-and-openehr-collaborate-to-advance-health-data-interoperability
SNOMED International hopes to see you at the forthcoming April 2025 Business Meetings, being held in Oslo from April 6-10, 2025, followed by some online-only sessions.
View the full schedule here, noting that the Meetings will include a special SNOMED CT in Norway day on April 10, 2025, hosted by the Norwegian Directorate of Health.
Registration
Please reserve your place onsite now if you have yet to do so.
Attending the Business Meetings online? Registration is not necessary — Zoom links to join open sessions will be shared via the organization's What's on This Week calendar.
Details on how to attend SNOMED CT in Norway online are below.
Accommodation Deadline
The April Business Meetings and SNOMED CT in Norway day will be held at Oslo's Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel - a city landmark with panoramic views, centrally located and close to major transport links.
Click here to book your stay at the venue, at a negotiated rate - please be reminded that the deadline to book bedrooms is March 21, 2025.
SNOMED CT in Norway
Attend this free event at the Business Meetings to learn about SNOMED CT use cases in Norway. Delivered in English and open to all, the event will showcase the country's achievements in advancing digital health. The program also features international experiences and an innovation spotlight.
Reserve your place onsite as part of the main registration. Online attendance is also possible via Zoom Events, but without live Q&A so we encourage you to attend in Oslo and be part of the conversation!
WHEN: April 10, 2025, from 09:00-15:00 Central European Summer Time
WHERE: Radisson Blu Plaza, Oslo
Questions?
Contact the SNOMED Events Team: events@snomed.org.
SNOMED International community, our abstract submission portal for SNOMED CT Expo 2025 is now open! This year's event will be held in Antwerp, Belgium, from October 22-24, 2025, and it offers plenty of opportunities to contribute your SNOMED CT knowledge and experience to a growing global repository. Submit an abstract by April 24, 2025 to present a concurrent session in one of the four streams (Enhancing Clinical Practice & Outcomes, Demonstrating Implementation Excellence, Terminology Leading Practices, and Advances in Research & Innovation), present a 10-minute Lightning Talk or submit an ePoster. Visit snomedexpo.org to learn more about this year's Expo and submit your abstract here https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/77696/submitter by April 24. You can also view the recordings from last year's Expo in South Korea: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyEMmgWz-ul2RZqNPISjIcz6SIqFyQZv9
SNOMED International is pleased to announce that registration is open for the April 2025 Business Meetings.
Join the organization and your Community of Practice this April in Oslo, Norway (or online), as we work to enable the clear and meaningful exchange and analysis of health information for all.
Participate in-person or online
- Hybrid in-person/online sessions will run in Oslo from April 6-10, 2025, followed by some online-only sessions.
- Click here to view the full schedule.
- NEW THIS YEAR: The Meetings will include a special SNOMED CT in Norway day on April 10, 2025, hosted by the Norwegian Directorate of Health.
- Negotiated room rates and special airline fares are available to attendees.
Attending the Business Meetings online? Registration is not necessary — Zoom links to join open sessions will be shared via the organization's What's on This Week calendar. Details on how to attend SNOMED CT in Norway online are below.
SNOMED CT in Norway
Attend this free event at the Business Meetings to learn about SNOMED CT use cases in Norway. Delivered in English and open to all, the event will showcase the country's achievements in advancing digital health. The program also features international experiences and an innovation spotlight.
Reserve your place onsite as part of the main registration. Online attendance is also possible via Zoom Events, but without live Q&A so we encourage you to attend in Oslo and be part of the conversation!
WHEN: April 10, 2025, from 09:00-15:00 Central European Summer Time
WHERE: Radisson Blu Plaza, Oslo
Venue & Travel
The Business Meetings and SNOMED CT in Norway day will be held at Oslo's Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel - a city landmark with panoramic views, centrally located and close to major transport links. Click here to book your stay at the venue, at a negotiated rate - deadline to book is March 21, 2025.
Visit this page to access special airline fares available to our delegates, courtesy of the Lufthansa Group.
See the Scream!
Staying on for Thursday? The Norwegian Directorate of Health invites you to join them on Wednesday evening for a taste of local culture at the world-renowned Munch Museum. Light refreshments will be served, and entry includes access to the art gallery where you can view Edvard Munch’s famous painting 'The Scream'!
WHEN: April 9, 2025, from 18:00-20:30 Central European Summer Time
WHERE: Munch Museum, Oslo
Photos: VisitOSLO/Didrick Stenersen
Questions?
Contact the SNOMED Events Team: events@snomed.org.
SNOMED International and INSERM, the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, have renewed a collaboration agreement initially established in 2015. The focus of the agreement continues to be on ensuring that rare diseases can be identified and recorded in a standard way globally and this is supported by the inclusion of rare disorders nomenclature content from Orphanet in SNOMED CT.
Orphanet, the INSERM unit dedicated to knowledge on rare diseases, maintains the Orphanet nomenclature of rare diseases (ORPHAcodes) and provides a multilingual database of information related to rare diseases and orphan drugs. Orphanet is a network of 40 countries, committed to improving the recognition, information and knowledge to improve rare diseases patients’ lives.
Orphanet operates under the joint authority of the French Ministry of Health and the National Institute of Health and Medical Research. INSERM is a public scientific and technological institute dedicated to biomedical research and human health, including rare diseases, and is involved in the entire range of activities from the laboratory to the patient's bedside and to public health.
Effective October 2024, the agreement builds on prior collaboration agreements (2015 and 2020) intended to raise the visibility of rare diseases in terminologies and promote interoperability between organizations and countries using different coding systems. The collaboration has already delivered Orphanet rare disease content into the SNOMED CT International release and a linkage between SNOMED CT and Orphanet.
The new collaboration agreement continues the work to maintain and update the alignment between SNOMED CT and Orphanet. In addition, both organisations are committed to supporting those requiring and using rare disease content to facilitate better patient care, precision medicine and research. Implementation is key to enable a global picture of rare diseases to provide understanding and allow improved patient management.
Read the news release here.
SNOMED International is excited to announce Belize as our most recent SNOMED International Member in the Central American and Caribbean region.
Other countries in the region that have also recently become SNOMED International Members are El Salvador and Jamaica.
Belize’s adoption of SNOMED CT is part of its efforts to digitize and modernize its healthcare delivery services. In 2022, the country announced the digital transformation of its health sector via a European Union-funded Health Sector Support Programme Belize Project to develop and implement a Clinical Data Exchange Platform to enable interconnectivity and interoperability between various different platforms such as Belize's Health Information System (BHIS).
In June 2024, the Belize Ministry of Health and Wellness announced it was seeking Inter-American Development Bank funding for further integration of digital technologies as part of its work to strengthen the BHIS and develop a more comprehensive framework for telemedicine, starting with a pilot program focused on mental health services.
The country’s Ministry of Health and Wellness will act as the National Release Centre (NRC) for the country. NRCs serve as the interface between SNOMED International, the national users and Affiliates, and other Members.
Read the release here.
Once annually in October, SNOMED International and an individual Member country work together to hold an internationally-attended SNOMED CT event. The event consists of a four-day Business Meeting and a two-day SNOMED CT Expo, supplemented with regional and culturally focused social activities.
With a confirmed vibrant European schedule planned throughout 2025 and April 2026, and with the Americas unable to host, the AsiaPac and Middle East regions are being called on to express interest in hosting the October 2026 Business Meetings and SNOMED CT Expo, partnered with SNOMED International.
SNOMED International now invites 'Expressions of Interest' from Member host countries in the Middle East and Asia Pacific regions to host the SNOMED International October Business Meetings and SNOMED CT Expo in 2026.
Upcoming SNOMED International Meetings:
- April 6-10, 2025 Business Meetings: Oslo, Norway
- October 18-24, 2025 Business Meetings and SNOMED CT Expo: Antwerp, Belgium
- April 12-16, 2026 Business Meetings: Vienna, Austria
TIMELINE:
- Submit Verbal/Email Expressions of Interest for Review by December 23, 2024
- Submit Formal Proposals by February 7, 2025 with guidance provided by SNOMED International
- Review of Formal Proposals by SNOMED International & Management Board:
End February 2025 - Successful October 2026 Member host country decided upon and announced at the April 2025 Business Meetings.
RESOURCES:
- Learn more about Member country hosting, how to apply and the selection process involved: October Business Meetings & SNOMED CT Expo - Prospective Host Resource Page.
QUESTIONS?
Please contact your applicable CSRM representative, or the Communications team
- Customer Relations Executives:
- Nick Egarhos, Middle East & Africa (neg@snomed.org)
- Liara Tutina, AsiaPac (ltu@snomed.org)
OR
- Communications & Collaborations Executive:
- Kelly Kuru (kku@snomed.org)
Following a March 2024 call for nominations to participate in three SNOMED International advisory groups – Editorial, Modeling and Terminology Release – CEO Don Sweete has approved the following nominations:
- Jeremy Rogers will fill the vacant position on the Editorial Advisory Group;
- Maël Le Gall, Márk Czotter and Stuart Abbott will fill the vacant positions on the Modeling Advisory Group; and
- Alejandro Rodriguez, Dion McMurtrie, Graeme Elsby and Reuben Daniels will fill the vacant positions on the Terminology Release Advisory Group.
Advisory Group participation is voluntary and is designed to provide expert advice on the development and implementation of its products and services. Terms are for two years, with the possibility of a two-year extension.
To learn more about SNOMED International advisory groups, visit IHTSDO Advisory Group Manual Home
At the October 2024 Business Meetings and Expo in Seoul, Korea, SNOMED International announced new appointees to its Management Board, a governance body with legal and oversight responsibility for the direction, management and risk mitigation of SNOMED International, and thanked outgoing members Joanne Burns, Chair; Matic Meglic, Director; and Dr Gong Mengchun, Director, for their many contributions and for navigating many challenges during their tenure, including the COVID-19 pandemic, managing the organizational budget throughout a period of widespread inflation, and developing a strategy to embrace advanced technologies to better position the organization and its Members for the future.
The organization welcomed new Board Chair Andrew Roddam, who has served as a Director since October 2020; and Directors Dr Juana Lucia Flores-Candia, Christian Hein and Bettina McMahon.
“SNOMED International is deeply grateful to our outgoing Management Board Directors for the many contributions they have made, the multifaceted perspectives they have shared and their deep expertise in leadership, healthcare technology and healthcare informatics,” says SNOMED International CEO Don Sweete. “You’ve helped us navigate critical challenges and build greater resilience in turbulent times, and while your term here has ended, your impact will continue to shape our future. We thank you for your dedication and partnership. At the same time, we welcome our new Chair and Directors, and we look forward to their guidance as we begin to execute on our next strategy.”
Read the release here.
WHO and SNOMED International are presently exploring a joint sustainable framework to link ICD-11 and SNOMED CT.
The World Health Organization (WHO) collaborates with various standards-developing organizations to enhance the interoperability of international health information systems. The linkage of the International Classification of Diseases 11th revision (ICD-11) with other terminologies has been a part of WHO's strategic plan since 2001.
SNOMED International is constantly looking for new ways to support Members and our broader community by developing tools and services that will make it easier to implement and use SNOMED CT. We recently launched our Simplex tool, which empowers users to efficiently create, manage and publish custom SNOMED CT extensions and to tailor SNOMED CT to meet their specific needs without incurring high costs. Read our latest Q&A-style blog in which SNOMED International Implementation Team members Anne Højen, Alejandro Lopez Osornio and Kai Kewley explain the tool’s key features, its target audience and how it differs from our Managed Service offering.
Read the blog here.
SNOMED International and the Chile-based National Center for Health Information Systems (Centro Nacional en Sistemas de Información en Salud - CENS) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to strengthen and support digital health transformation and enable regional healthcare interoperability in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). CENS is the executing agency of RACSEL (Latin American and Caribbean Digital Health Network).
The MOU positions SNOMED International as a strategic partner to RACSEL, a collaborative network across LAC.
Collaboration goals
The goal of the MOU is to support the implementation of regional projects to strengthen the capacity of LAC countries in health management by promoting digital transformation in health, focusing on developing a regional agreement for cross-border digital health services, and strengthening the health information exchange model implemented in the region through the adoption of standards, architectures, governance and protocols, and data exchange and interoperability protocols.
SNOMED International’s role in the collaboration will include supporting health data interoperability and the implementation of SNOMED CT and other health data standards and providing education through webinars and other educational offerings. The organization will also participate in various activities to help promote health data interoperability initiatives across the LAC region.
The organizations will work together to develop guidelines and protocols for the exchange of public health data and care information, including semantic and syntactic components, and to support participating countries in their adoption. They will also collaborate on developing architectural components and security frameworks for the exchange of healthcare, public health and telehealth data, and on identifying other areas where effective and practical cooperation may be possible.
Read the release here.
SNOMED International is pleased to announce the release of the SNOMED CT Clinical Implementation Guide for Cancer Synoptic Reporting, a comprehensive resource to facilitate standardized and structured reporting in cancer care.
Designed to enable healthcare organizations to improve the quality of information captured, facilitate data exchange, support research initiatives, and enhance collaboration among healthcare providers, the guide provides clinicians with an overview of the content of SNOMED CT that supports cancer synoptic reporting and highlights the role of SNOMED CT in standardizing and enhancing cancer reporting practices.
The scope of the guide is specific to the creation of SNOMED CT concepts necessary to unambiguously represent the data elements required for cancer reporting for all adult and pediatric solid tumors as published by the College of American Pathologists (CAP) and the International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting (ICCR). The content is specific to structure pathology reporting of malignant neoplasms as specified by the CAP and ICCR.
Read the release here: https://www.snomed.org/news/snomed-ct-clinical-implementation-guide-for-cancer-synoptic-reporting-supports-accurate-documentation-and-improved-information-sharing
View the guide here: SNOMED CT Clinical Implementation Guide for Cancer Synoptic Reporting
