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Blog

June 14, 2023

SNOMED International and the Republic of Poland are pleased to announce that the Central European nation has rejoined SNOMED International, now a vibrant community of 46 Members globally. A country of almost 38 million, Poland has the sixth largest economy in the European Union by GDP. 

Poland will be represented at SNOMED International by the country’s Centrum e-Zdrowia (e-Health Centre), which implements IT projects that are key to the functioning of the healthcare system in Poland. The e-Health Centre is also responsible for carrying out tasks related to building an information society. It creates digital services and solutions that support the work of medical professionals and facilitate the management of health matters for citizens...

Read the full announcement at snomed.org and contact comms@snomed.org with inquiries. 

SNOMED International has a number of voluntary Advisory Groups designed to provide expert advice on the development and implementation of its products and services. See IHTSDO Advisory Group Manual Home for information on each of the groups.

At this time, SNOMED International is seeking volunteers to serve on the following Advisory Group: 

    • Modeling (MAG)

How do I apply for a position on a SNOMED International Advisory Group?

Selection Process
Anyone can apply. The deadline for submitting a nomination is Friday, 30 June 2023 Applications will be reviewed by the AG Chairs and their recommendations will be put forward to the CEO for final approval. All candidates will be notified of the results by email in July. 

Application Checklist
Applicants, please make sure you include the following items in your email submission to governance@snomed.org:

  1. Completed Nomination Form, including your declaration of interest and self-assessment of relevant skills per the applicable skills matrix (see document attached)
  2. Your CV (resume)


Please contact governance@snomed.org with questions, or for additional information on the Advisory Group nomination process.




SNOMED International is recruiting up to 5 annotators for an exciting project being run by SNOMED International to create an Entity Linking Challenge, encoding unstructured patient data with SNOMED CT using AI techniques. 

The project is set to commence in July 2023 and is estimated that the work will equal a minimum of 20 hours per week over a 2 month period. Annotators will be compensated $60USD per hour. 

Requirements for annotators: 

  • Able to annotate clinical notes over a 2 month period or approximately 
  • Attend a training workshop and participate in weekly team quality review meetings
  • Fluent in English
  • Able to work remotely
  • Complete the MIT PhysioNet clinical data training (around 2 hours) before the project commences
  • Previous exposure to coding using SNOMED CT
  • Possess one of the following backgrounds: 
  1. Clinical practice in a primary care setting. This could include medical students who have completed several placements or rotations in the appropriate institutions.
  2. Clinical coders with at least one year’s experience.
  3. People with a year’s past experience annotating medical notes to SNOMED CT for the purpose of clinical product development or natural language processing.



Please send your resume and letter of interest to SNOMED International (annotation@snomed.org). Deadline to submit is Friday, June 9, 2023.

SNOMED International recently released its 2022 Annual Report, which presents the organization’s progress against the SNOMED International 2020-2025 strategy, details its activities over the past year, and provides a record of the year’s financial position.

Titled Collaborating for Impact: The Achievements of a Dynamic Global Community, the 2022 Annual Report details our extensive activities throughout the year with various stakeholders across the globe, including the addition of 3 new SNOMED International Members. It also includes a number of global success stories, each focusing on SNOMED CT initiatives that helped our Members achieve specific outcomes...

Read full announcement.

Contact info@anomed.org for information. 

Once annually in October, SNOMED International and an individual Member country work together to hold an internationally-attended SNOMED CT event. The event is comprised of a four-day Business Meeting and a two-day SNOMED CT Expo, supplemented with regional and culturally focused social activities.

SNOMED International now invites 'Expressions of Interest' from Member host countries for the SNOMED International October Business Meetings and SNOMED CT Expo 2025.

To maintain equality among the 3 global regions, proposals for 2025 are sought from:

  • 2025: EMEA Region Members

TIMELINE:

  • Submit Verbal/Email Expressions of Interest for Review by July 10, 2023
  • Submit Formal Proposals by October 2, 2023
  • Review of Formal Proposals by SNOMED International & Management Board: January 2024
  • Successful October 2025 Member host country decided upon and announced at the April 2024 Business Meetings.

Learn more about Member country hosting, how to apply and the selection process involved on the October Business Meetings & SNOMED CT Expo - Prospective Host Resource Page.

Questions? Please contact your applicable CSRM representative, or the Communications team:

Customer Relations Executives:

Communications Executive:


SNOMED International is developing a three-episode podcast pilot project

To help us better understand if you currently listen to podcasts, the content you like to listen to and whether you would be interested in a SNOMED International podcast, we are asking you to complete a short survey.

We also want to know if you have suggestions as to topics and potential guests, and if you would like to participate as a guest or host.

Thank you for your support in launching this exciting new initiative!

For more information, contact comms@snomed.org.

You can find the survey here: https://forms.gle/eDwLGmmZUwbKxZaE7. Please note it will be open until May 11, 2023.

We encourage you to share this link with your colleagues and others in the SNOMED International community, as not everyone has Twitter or LinkedIn accounts.


On May 2, 2023, the window to submit an abstract for this year’s Expo in Atlanta closes


AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT!

Reach out to prospective colleagues and contacts, share information about the SNOMED CT Expo Call for Abstracts, and encourage them to submit an oral presentation or e-poster abstract! The more abstracts we receive, the better the quality of the conference overall.

Important details to share:

This year’s event will be held in Atlanta, GA, also known as “the city in a forest,” from October 26-27, 2023.

Submissions must focus on using SNOMED CT in a product, service or research context across one of the four program streams: 

  • Enhancing Clinical Practice and Outcomes
  • Terminology Leading Practices
  • Demonstrating Implementation Excellence
  • Advances in Research and Innovation 

Why submit?

It’s a great professional opportunity and it helps build the global SNOMED CT knowledge base.  It’s also just a fun, rewarding and educational event that many in the SNOMED International community enjoy attending every year!

Check out snomedexpo.org for guidelines and the link to submit.



This year’s hybrid business meetings hosted more than 30+ keynote, governance, advisory, working, project and clinical reference groups, with participation from more than 160 delegates onsite, and 500+ logins on Zoom. 

Videos and Presentations

Opening Plenary

Our Future Health CEO, Dr. Andy Roddam, delivers the 2023 April Business Meeting Keynote, followed by the SNOMED International Community Updates. 

Keynote (Video, Presentation)

Community Updates (Video, Presentation)

Closing Plenary

Reports from each of the advisory, working, project, user and clinical reference groups, chaired by Jim Case and Rory Davidson. 

Business Meeting reports (Video, Presentation)

Looking ahead

We look forward to seeing you again in Atlanta for the October Business Meetings and 2023 SNOMED CT Expo. Don’t forget to submit your abstract to be highlighted in the event’s concurrent program. Share your SNOMED CT experiences with our international community.  

Questions?

Contact events@snomed.org.

SNOMED International encourages you to consider submitting nominations for the following awards, acknowledging individual contributions to our organization and community: 

  • The Award for Excellence (given annually), and
  • The Lifetime Achievement Award (awarded periodically)

In 2022, the Award for Excellence was awarded to Alejandro Mauro of Chile and Vicky Fung of Hong Kong, China, and both David Markwell and Jeremy Thorp were presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award.  

Your Challenge?

  • Think about someone who is worthy; Someone deserving, and someone who should be honored at the SNOMED International Awards Dinner in Atlanta this October.
  • Note: An employee of SNOMED International is eligible to nominate someone so long as they find someone from the Community of Practice to serve as a co-nominator.

It is through your thoughtful consideration and retrospection that we are able to honor the thought leaders, past and present, in our community.  

Please reference the awards policies and forms attached to this post, or visit the Awards Page for more information.  

We look forward to formally recognizing excellence among the SNOMED International Community at October's planned Awards Dinner in Atlanta.

Contact governance@snomed.org for more information. 

We hope to hear from you soon!



             


From a collection of 9 charter Members in 2007, SNOMED International has now grown to 47 Members across the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific regions. The drive for structured data within national health systems around the world has continued the adoption and uptake of the SNOMED CT clinical terminology. 

Ahead of SNOMED International’s annual April Business Meetings next week, the organization welcomes our new Members (in order of their joining date), providing our community with some initial information about each Member. 


Indonesia

Indonesia joined SNOMED International at the end of 2022 and became the 12th Member in the Asia Pacific region. In July 2022, Indonesia's Health Ministry launched the Indonesia Health Services platform as a way to deliver on the country's health technology strategy. The ONEHEALTHY initiative is a platform of data connectivity, analysis, and services to support the integration of applications across health facilities. Leveraging SNOMED CT, the Ministry’s approach will aim to integrate and standardize health data and exchange.


Jamaica

Our first Member in the Caribbean region, Jamaica, an island country of the West Indies and the third largest island in the Caribbean Sea after Cuba and Hispaniola, has a population of almost 3 million. It announced its plans to digitally transform its health sector in September 2021 and has since worked toward those goals employing the Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) model, a knowledge-sharing approach that connects expert teams with primary care physicians.


Poland

SNOMED International welcomed Poland back to the SNOMED CT community on the 31st of January. Poland’s outlook to 2030 strategy document highlights the approach the country is employing to advance its healthcare system and sets new principles, objectives and priorities for the economic, social, health and spatial development of its citizens. The renewed plan to adopt SNOMED CT in Poland supports the realization of another key element of its strategy – ensuring that medical professionals are able to electronically document and easily share patient data.


Andorra

The most recent Member to SNOMED International on the 28th of March, Andorra is a very small, independent principality situated between France and Spain in the Pyrenees mountains. The country’s National Health Service is engaged in massive digital transformation and Andorra is in the process of building a national patient-centered digital health system, complemented with a national health portal that will demand seamless and accurate access to all available patient health records. 


Watch out for more detailed information on our new Members in the coming weeks. 


Interested in attending the April Business Meetings onsite or online? Visit snomed.org/business-meetings 

Questions? Contact info@snomed.org   

Today we published a blog post written by SNOMED International CIO Rory Davidson in which he explains what the SNOMED CT concept lookup tool is and who it was developed for.

Rory explains the advantages it offers non SNOMED CT users, and highlights the tool’s capabilities, such as being able to look across all extensions and editions, not just the SNOMED CT International Edition.

In the blog, he touches on the drivers for developing the tool, such as the challenges many European Union countries face in cross-border data-sharing with countries that are not yet SNOMED International Members.

He also discusses the technology behind the tool and explains how it is similar to, yet different from, Google search. Check out the post here.

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London, United Kingdom, February 23, 2023 -- SNOMED International is welcoming two new directors to its Management Board.

The organization’s Management Board is a governance body with legal and oversight responsibility for the management and direction of SNOMED International. It offers the organization a wealth of experience in global healthcare and informatics, advanced technologies, organizational governance and business leadership and risk management, guiding us as we execute against our strategy and plan for the future. Management Board directors’ expertise and industry relationships are key to helping SNOMED International leverage technologies and strengthen partnerships with our many stakeholders worldwide, and guide the organization on the development and execution of our current five-year strategy.

Anne-Marie Grey brings more than 30 years of humanitarian fundraising and marketing experience, both in the United States and internationally to SNOMED International. The recent Executive Director and CEO for USA for UNHCR, Anne-Marie is the Principal Director at New York-based Grey-O’Keefe Consulting LLC, a training, strategy, and marketing agency that brings causes and corporations together to positively impact society and business. She brings to the Board her unique and extensive leadership skills in both the not-for-profit and private sectors. Anne-Marie has mentored and advised non-profit leaders on resource mobilization, leadership and strategy at organizations such as the Forbes Nonprofit Council, an invitation-only, fee-based organization for senior-level executives in successful nonprofit organizations; USA for UNHCRUNHCRSave the Children; and UNICEF. In addition to an educational background in art history, literature, finance and non-profit management, Anne-Marie has obtained DiSC and Five Behaviors partner certification, and is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach and International Coaching Federation credential trained coach, facilitator, author, and international speaker.

Bersabel Ephrem brings to the Management Board 32 years of experience in the areas of leadership, governance and public health policy and program management and has worked in several organizations within the Canadian Federal Government. Most recently, she served as the Director General of Centre of Communicable Diseases and Infection Control within the Public Health Agency of Canada. Prior to that, Bersabel served as the Senior Advisor to the Director General of the World Health Organization on management reform, where she provided leadership and oversight in the development of policies and institutionalized key governance initiatives. Bersabel has also served as Director General at the International Affairs Division of Health Canada. In this role, Bersabel led the Canadian delegation on several groundbreaking negotiations in WHO and the Pan American Health Organization. Her international experience includes serving as the Chair of APEC Health Task Force, head of the Secretariat for the Global Health Security Initiative and as the Vice Chair of the Board of Members at the Global Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Research and Development Hub, providing her with unique insights on the challenges global healthcare-focused organizations must navigate and on successful strategies to advance on their goals.

The breadth of skills possessed by the organization’s new and existing Management Board representatives are highly relevant to SNOMED International’s global membership structure and to the organization’s work developing SNOMED CT, a global terminology working to become the “one language of health” worldwide.

Joanne Burns, Chair of the Management Board since 2020, remarks on the importance of bringing together a group of individuals with a variety of perspectives and experience from across this organization’s many valued stakeholder groups. “Ms. Grey’s and Ms. Ephrem’s depth of experience and skills honed across multiple national and international organizations and sectors over many years will contribute significantly to the strategy, finance and risk acumen of the SNOMED International Management Board.”

SNOMED International CEO Don Sweete concurs. “Each of our new Management Board directors offers a suite of diverse strengths and highly relevant in-depth knowledge that will help move the organization forward,” he said. “I look forward to the positive impact they will have as they settle in and become integrated into the current Board.”

Ms. Grey and Ms. Ephrem, both appointed to a two-year term, join a strong group of six Management Board Directors: Joanne Burns, Chair; and Directors Dr. Matic Meglic; Dr. Gong Mengchun; Dr. Isabelle de Zegher; Professor Michael Lewis; and Dr. Andrew Roddam.


SNOMED International is seeking feedback on a proposal to modify the layout specified for the Identifier File (4.2.4 Identifier File Specification), which provides a standardized way of associating alternative Identifiers from various schemes with SNOMED CT components. This file provides alternative identifiers for concepts where the same entity exists in another code system.  

SNOMED International has not used this file to date, but plans to in the future. As such, we want to bring the column ordering into line with all other RF2 files before publishing.

If you are a SNOMED CT user, please read this proposal paper: SNOMED International Proposal to change the RF2 Identifier File specification and then respond with any questions and feedback via the form linked in that document.

We will respond to feedback by the end of this consultation on March 31, 2023, and post it as an addendum to the proposal.

Please share this page with anyone you think would have an interest in or be impacted by this proposal.


Share your SNOMED CT knowledge and expertise!

Are you interested in sharing your SNOMED CT knowledge and expertise on a global stage? Do you have an implementation or other SNOMED CT experience that could contribute to advancing the utility of the clinical terminology and improving patient outcomes worldwide? Submit an abstract for a SNOMED CT Expo 2023 oral presentation or poster today!

This year’s in-person and online event takes place in Atlanta, Georgia, from October 26-27, 2023

Why submit? 

Presenting at Expo is an excellent opportunity to shine a global spotlight on your professional expertise and on your organization’s achievements. It also enables you to contribute to the global pool of SNOMED CT knowledge.

Submissions must focus on using the clinical terminology in a product, service or research context across one of the four program streams: 

  • Enhancing Clinical Practice and Outcomes
  • Terminology Leading Practices
  • Demonstrating Implementation Excellence
  • Advances in Research and Innovation

How to submit: 

Submit your abstract here.

Key dates:

  • Submission deadline: April 17, 2023
  • Submitters notified: May 29, 2023
  • Conference: October 26-27, 2023 



Visiting Atlanta 

Did you know that Atlanta...

  • is considered a city in a forest? The U.S. National Forest Service has recognized it as the most heavily forested urban area in the country;
  • is home to more than 5 million residents in 11 counties;
  • is also home to The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); and 
  • does everything on a BIG scale: 
    • Its airport, with terminals the size of 45 football fields, has been classified as the busiest in the world;
    • It has 55 streets named Peachtree;
    • The city’s aquarium is the largest in the country; and
    • It’s home to The Varsity, the largest and busiest drive-in restaurant in the world.

Hotel accommodations

This year’s event will be held at The Starling Atlanta Midtown, an urban oasis featuring a bold, eclectic design and easy access to surrounding amenities. Rooms sell out quickly, so book your stay today!


Sponsors & exhibitors:

Showcase your products and services and connect with hundreds of SNOMED CT users, researchers, clinicians and others at the only conference focused entirely on SNOMED CT. 

Spaces are limited and selling out quickly, so reserve your spot today!

For more information on the benefits of participating, view the SNOMED CT Expo 2023 prospectus.

Questions? 

Contact events@snomed.org 




SNOMED International is pleased to announce that the April 2023 Business Meetings will again be run as a hybrid event, providing both in-person and virtual opportunities to participate.  

The in-person conference will be held from April 2nd-5th, 2023 at the Andaz London Liverpool Street in London, UK. In keeping with our hybrid approach, all in-person meetings will be supported with the necessary audio and video tools to support high quality online participation via Zoom. Online-only meetings are being scheduled to take place around those dates, with details to be announced closer to the event. Zoom links to join all open sessions will be shared on the organization's What's on this Week calendar

Schedule & Registration:

The current schedule for the Business Meetings (including both hybrid and online sessions) can be found on Confluence here, and registration for the in-person part of the event is now open.

If you are planning to join us in London please click here to complete the registration process (registration is NOT required for online-only attendees).

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Accommodation:

   

SNOMED International has negotiated extremely competitive rates at the venue (both for their current rates at the hotel, and also in the surrounding area). Rooms must be reserved before March 17, 2023 to obtain the discounted rates but we strongly recommend reserving your room as soon as possible in order to secure your booking. Please see our website here for pricing and the SNOMED booking link.

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We very much look forward to welcoming you again to London. For any additional information pertaining to the April 2023 Business Meetings, please contact events@snomed.org