Please see here for 2024 Early Visibility Release Notifications

This page provides information on planned changes to upcoming SNOMED International Release packages in three sections:

  1. EARLY VISIBILITY OF PROPOSED CONTENT CHANGES (with provisional release date)
  2. EARLY VISIBILITY OF PUBLISHED CHANGES (with confirmed release date)
  3. INFORMATION ABOUT PROJECTS AND WORK IN PROGRESS 

Please submit any feedback relating to the items below to info@snomed.org

PLEASE NOTE, YOU MAY HAVE TO REGISTER FOR A CONFLUENCE USER ACCOUNT IN ORDER TO ACCESS THE LINKS TO DOCUMENTS REFERENCED BELOW.

Proposed Content Changes

ItemsHierarchy/TopicEARLY VISIBILITY OF PROPOSED CONTENT CHANGES

Planned Release timing

(*this is provisional only and is subject to change)

1.Release Schedule

Change to Effective Time for International Edition Starting 1 September 2023

After consultation with the community, SNOMED International has changed the date of the effective time for the International Edition from the last day of each month, to the first of each month.  

The effective time for the “January” edition will be 1st January.

The effective time for the “July” edition will be 1st July. 

The July 2023 International Edition was the last to be published with effective time of the last day of the month.

Further details about this change can be found in the Q&A blog post. 

From: 1st September 2023
2.Body Structure

Inactivation of 9258009|Gravid uterus structure (body structure)|

This concept will be inactivated, content that is modeled with this concept will be remodeled with a site of 35039007|Uterine structure (body structure)| along with occurrence <<307159006|Pregnancy time period (qualifier value)|.  

The domain of 246454002 |Occurrence (attribute)| has been extended in the October 2023 release to include << 71388002 |Procedure (procedure)| to support these content changes. Content areas that will be updated include 386811000|Fetal procedure (procedure)| and 386637004|Obstetric procedure (procedure)|.

Q4 2023/Q1 2024 International Release
3.Body Structure

Inactivation of Concepts Specified Male/Female in Descriptions

Subtypes of 67770001 |Male mammary gland structure (body structure)| and 91532001 |Female mammary gland structure (body structure)| and their associated disorder and specimen concepts.  Further information is available here (Confluence log in required).

Q4 2023/Q1 2024 International Release
4.Clinical Finding

Update for Concepts Using 'Caused by'

Clinical finding concepts containing "Caused by" in their FSN will be reviewed and will be updated (if applicable) according to the editorial guidelines related to causation here. 

There is one area where work is still in progress:  

  • Clinical finding caused by radiation.
2024 International Release
5.Procedure

Update Hierarchy 363680008|Radiographic imaging Procedure (procedure)|and Descendants

A Briefing Note documenting the proposed changes for the hierarchy 363680008|Radiographic imaging procedure (procedure)| and descendants was shared with the Editorial Advisory Group, Clinical Leads Group, Member Forum, Content Managers Advisory Group, and other key stakeholders in July 2023.

Feedback was received from a wide range of stakeholders. In response to this feedback, the proposed changes to the hierarchy have been modified. These modifications will address issues raised in the feedback.

This Informational Briefing Note summarizes the changes that will be implemented.

Implementation of the content changes will commence in Q4 2023. The updates will be implemented in sub-hierarchies and promoted over a number of international monthly releases until complete.

Editing work commencing Q4 2023 (<<168537006|Plain radiography (procedure)|).

First phase of content updates planned for promotion Q1 2024.

6.Content Improvement

Updates to the Inactivation Reason and Historical Association for 'On Examination' and 'Complaining of' Inactive Content

Many of the 'on examination' and 'complaining of' concepts were previously inactivated with the inactivation reason of |Moved elsewhere| with a historical association value |Extension Namespace 1000000|.

This content will be updated with an inactivation reason of |Non-conformance to editorial policy| and a historical association of |Alternative| to a suitable international concept. 

Q4 2023 International Release
7.Social Context

Ethnic/Racial Group Social Context Content Inactivation

The subtypes of 372148003 |Ethnic group (ethnic group)| and 415229000 |Racial group (racial group)| will be inactivated as they are out of scope for the International Edition.  A briefing note is available here.

Q4 2023 International Release
8.Clinical Finding/Procedure

Patient/Subject concepts in the Clinical finding and Procedure Hierarchies

Concepts in the Clinical finding and Procedure hierarchies that contain the explicit context of patient or subject will be inactivated and replaced with concepts without this explicit context. For further information please see briefing note.

Q1 2024 International Release
9.Procedure/Observable EntityEvaluation Procedure vs Observable Entity

The Senior Management Team (SMT) recently agreed on a proposed solution to resolve the duplication between the evaluation procedure and observable entity hierarchies. The resolution includes moving the majority of the evaluation procedures to the observable entity hierarchy while retaining the original concept id during the move.

The semantic tag will be updated from evaluation procedure to observable entity, and updates in terming and modeling to align with the observable entity model are expected. This move will allow for concepts of multiple granularities to be classified in a single hierarchy.

Non-defining annotations for “order only,” “observation only,” or “both order and observation” may be added to the concepts to assist with certain use cases. Note that some content areas of evaluation procedures such as panels and procedure methods will not be addressed at this time.

A projected timeline of changes will be developed and shared with the community. Editorial and implementation guidance will be provided with this project. Please see the briefing note for further information.

To be determined

10.Procedure 

Inactivation of 277132007|Therapeutic procedure (procedure)

The concept 277132007 |Therapeutic procedure (procedure) will be inactivated with the inactivation reason of Outdated and a replacement association target of 71388002 |Procedure (procedure)|. The nearly 2000 descendants will be reviewed as to the appropriateness of either the Has intent (attribute) of Therapeutic intent, or a Method (attribute) of Therapy - action.

For further information please see briefing note.

Q4 2023 International Release


11.Content Improvement

Urinary Bladder

Following feedback from translation, descriptions for concepts that contain the word 'bladder' and the site of 89837001|Urinary bladder structure (body structure)| will be updated to include 'urinary' in the FSN and PT, for example:

126885006|Neoplasm of bladder (disorder)

will be updated to

126885006|Neoplasm of urinary bladder (disorder).

January 2024 International Release
12.Procedure

Update for 73632009 |Laparoscopy (procedure)| and Subtypes 

There will be a bulk update to align 73632009 |Laparoscopy (procedure)| and subtypes with the template here: https://confluence.ihtsdotools.org/display/SCTEMPLATES/Laparoscopy+%28procedure%29+-+Draft

These changes include the addition of INCISION ROLE GROUP and INSPECTION ROLE GROUP for all Laparoscopic procedures. 

Q1 2024 International Release
13.Product

International Unit in Descriptions for Clinical Drugs

'International Unit' as a description is arbitrary and to be understood each product requires reference to a particular bioefficacy specification for that entity. Therefore, 'international' is not meaningful or comparable as a description at Clinical Drug level. International unit will be represented as 'unit' in Clinical Drug descriptions and 20 concepts will have their descriptions changed to 'unit'  Note: abbreviations will not be used. Editorial Guidance has been drafted.

January 2024 International Release
14.Procedure

Inactivation of  “RAST” and “RAST test” from subtypes of 104380004 |Allergen specific antibody measurement (procedure)|

Based on a proposal by the Allergies and Hypersensitivities CRG, descriptions containing “RAST” and “RAST test” will be inactivated from the concepts in this sub-hierarchy as they are not considered real synonyms.

Immunoassays for immunoglobulin specific to an allergen of interest are widely used in the diagnosis of allergic disease. These tests are often incorrectly referred to collectively as "radioallergosorbent tests" ("RAST") because they were the earliest immunoassays to be used extensively.

Q1 2024 International Release

Published Content Changes

ItemHierarchyMOVED FROM PROPOSED CHANGES TO PUBLISHED CHANGESConfirmed Release Date
1.Clinical Finding

Inactivation of Concepts that state Delivered/Not delivered

Obstetric content that conflates the delivery status with the disorder of the mother that prompted the admission to hospital will be inactivated.

There are 250 concepts that state the delivery status of the mother within the FSN:

  • 198905007 |Placenta previa with hemorrhage - delivered (disorder)|
  • 198906008 |Placenta previa with hemorrhage - not delivered (disorder)| 

These concepts are classification derived and are used to record whether the baby was, or was not delivered during that inpatient stay for the care of the mother who has placenta previa with a hemorrhage.

January 2023 International Release

2.

Procedure

Update for 399248000 |Procedure related to anesthesia and sedation (procedure)|

745638006 |Injection of anesthetic agent (procedure)| and its 283 subtypes will gain a supertype of 399097000 |Administration of anesthesia (procedure)|. 

January 2023 International Release
3.Organism

Inactivation of 415360003 |Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (organism)|

To resolve ambiguity for 415360003 |Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (organism)|, this concept will be inactivated as ambiguous. New concepts will be created to represent the associated strain and species.

840533007 |Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (organism)| will be a sibling of the “Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus” strain and a subtype of the “Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus” species.

Current children of 415360003 |Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (organism)|, which represent Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus strain subtypes will be inactivated using "Outdated component" as the inactivation reason with a "Replaced by" association to the concept representing “Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus."

Details of the change can be found in this Briefing Note.

January 2023 International Release
4.Qualifier Value

Planned Inactivation of Concepts in the 260299005 |Number (qualifier value)| Hierarchy

Following the deployment of the concrete domain functionality in SNOMED CT, concepts in the 260299005 |Number (qualifier value)| hierarchy are no longer necessary and plans have been made for their inactivation.

To provide adequate time for any national extension or implementation affected by this change, concepts in the 260299005 |Number (qualifier value)| hierarchy will be inactivated in the January 2023 International Release.

Concepts will be inactivated with reason “Non-conformance to editorial policy” and no historical relationship or replacement concept will be provided.

Exceptions:

118586006 |Ratio (property) (qualifier value)| and descendants have been relocated to 118598001 |Property (qualifier value)| hierarchy.

272070003 |Ordinal number (qualifier value)| and descendants have been relocated to 362981000 |Qualifier value (qualifier value)| hierarchy.

A briefing note will also be distributed to selected Advisory and Project Groups.

Please contact info@snomed.org with any inquiries.

January 2023 International Release
5.Body Structure

Remodeling of 771527003|Structure of synovial sac (body structure)| and Subtypes

The content in this area is being updated to align with this model.

February 2023 International Release
6.Clinical Finding

Inactivation of 118222006 |General finding of observation of patient (finding)|

118222006 |General finding of observation of patient (finding)| is a high level finding with little clinical value.  The concept will be inactivated with an inactivation target of Clinical finding.  Descendants count is 4237 concepts. 

February 2023 International Release
7.Qualifier Value

Update to 307159006|Pregnancy time period (qualifier value)| and Subtypes

Concepts referring to temporal periods for pregnancy and birth (307159006 Pregnancy time period (qualifier value) and subtypes) will be updated with the addition of a small number of concepts to make this area of content more comprehensive.

A new concept which explicitly covers 'maternal antenatal and/or intrapartum and/or postpartum period’ will be added.

Definitions will be added to aid modeling and interpretation.

February 2023 International Release
8.MRCM

Update to MRCM

Extend the range of 719722006 |Has realization (attribute)| by including 71388002 << |Procedure (procedure)|, << 272379006 |Event (event)|, << 404684003 |Clinical finding (finding)|.

Please see here

February 2023 International Release
9.Content Improvement

Inactivation of "X by body site" concepts in various hierarchies

Concepts that include "X by body site" in multiple hierarchies are being inactivated, e.g., 371571005 |Imaging by body site (procedure)| and 301810000 |Infection by site (disorder)|, because they are classification groupers with no clinical use.

February 2023 International Release
10.Clinical Finding

Neoplasm of Connective and Soft Tissue Disorders

Around 30 concepts which include “neoplasm of connective and soft tissue" in their FSN will be inactivated as "Classification derived component." 

March 2023 International Release
11.Clinical Finding

Measurement Findings

The next set of changes for measurement findings content will involve the positive and negative results content (~150 concepts). Measurement findings concepts which include 'positive' or 'negative' in the FSN will be updated as follows:

1) The FSN and PT will be updated to include 'detected' or 'not detected.' Existing descriptions with 'positive' or 'negative' will be retained as synonyms.
2) The Has interpretation value of 10828004 |Positive (qualifier value)| or 260385009 |Negative (qualifier value)| will be updated to 260373001 |Detected (qualifier value)| or 260415000 |Not detected (qualifier value)|.

Please see the briefing note (20221116 BN Positive_Negative measurement findings.pdf) for more information.

March 2023 International Release
12.Clinical Finding

Metastatic Content with 'Involving' and 'Metastasis to X of Unknown Y'

Approximately 75 disorder concepts of the type 'Malignant tumor involving [x structure] by [separate] metastasis from [y structure]' and 30 disorder concepts of the type 'Metastasis to [x structure] of unknown primary' will be inactivated.

Examples:

369554006 Malignant tumor involving right fallopian tube by separate metastasis from left fallopian tube (disorder)
285643007 |Metastasis to adrenal gland of unknown primary (disorder)|

The current Editorial Guidance indicates that the primary malignancy and the metastatic malignant neoplasm should be recorded using two separate SNOMED CT concepts, and these replacements will be provided as inactivation target values, and if not available they will be created.

March 2023 International Release
13.Clinical Finding

Remodel 16356006|Multiple pregnancy (disorder) to Become Subtype of 77386006 |Pregnancy (finding)|

16356006|Multiple pregnancy (disorder) will be updated to a clinical finding with a semantic tag of (finding) and a subtype of 77386006 |Pregnancy (finding)|.

Current subtypes of 16356006|Multiple pregnancy (disorder) will be reviewed as some subtypes should retain the semantic tag ‘disorder’ where the concept meets the criteria of being always and necessarily an abnormal clinical state.

A new parent will be assigned designated by whether the semantic tag has been changed.

March 2023 International Release
14.Clinical Finding

Primary and Metastatic Project - New Primary Malignancy Disorders

Approximately 150 new primary malignancy disorders will be added to SNOMED CT.

Inferred subtypes of 372087000 |Primary malignant neoplasm (disorder)| that were assigned by the classifier based on the morphology hierarchy (now revised), but which did not state primary in the FSN ('agnostic') have been reviewed.  

These previous subtypes of 372087000 |Primary malignant neoplasm (disorder)| will have a new subtype concept added that states 'primary' to provide an option for selection by clinicians.

March 2023 International Release
15.Clinical Finding 

Inactivation of 307844003 |Minor surgery status (finding)| and Subtypes

Concepts that have explicit context should be in the situation hierarchy. Therefore 307844003 |Minor surgery status (finding)| and 5 subtypes with context "done" + a procedure will be inactivated.

One concept 314471005 |Minor surgery done (finding)| will be inactivated and replaced by 1268934004 |Minor surgery done (situation)|.

March 2023 International Release
16.SubstanceReview of Concepts Defined by Stated = 105590001 |Substance (substance)|

Concepts in various hierarchies (including Procedure, Clinical finding, Observable entity, Event and Specimen), which are defined by the stated attribute value of "105590001 |Substance (substance)|" are being reviewed.

Many of these concepts are being remodeled by removing the attribute/value relationship—provided that this change doesn’t result in a change to the meaning of the associated concepts. Some of these concepts may need to be remodeled with a more specific substance.

Some of the grouper concepts will be inactivated—specifically the groupers that are classification derived and/or have only one subtype. This change is part of the Substance-Drug project and will allow for the correct subsumption of the subtypes, if and once the attribute values are changed to subtypes of 373873005 |Pharmaceutical / biologic product (product)|.

March 2023 International Release
17.Body Structure

Inactivation of 6920004|Defect (morphologic abnormality)|

6920004|Defect (morphologic abnormality)|is planned for inactivation. 286 concepts currently modelled with 6920004|Defect (morphologic abnormality)| will be reviewed and remodelled; this may include inactivation and replacement.

Please see the briefing note for further details.

May 2023 International Release
18.Clinical Finding 

Inactivation of Measurement Finding Concepts

The following concepts will be inactivated as they do not comply with editorial guidance:

    • Blood glucose finding concepts with the numeric value or range precoordinated, e.g., 166915000 |Blood glucose 1.5-2.4 mmol/L (finding)| - 7 concepts.
    • Urine pH finding concepts with the numeric value precoordinated, e.g., 167309000 |Urine pH = 6.5 (finding)| - 7 concepts.
    • 107651007 |Quantity finding (finding)| and 13 subtype concepts.
    • "X in sample" finding concepts, e.g., 275791007 |Urea in sample (finding)| - 9 concepts.
May 2023 International Release
19.Qualifier Value

Planned Inactivation of Subtypes of 129284003 |Surgical action (qualifier value)|

As part of the Quality Initiative, a review has been undertaken of the 129284003 |Surgical action (qualifier value)| hierarchy which has identified:

  • 36 concepts with no usage or descendants.
  • 4 concepts with 3 or less descendants and no usage.
  • 5 concepts with low usage and less than 2 descendants with no usage.

As a result of this review, 45 concepts in the qualifier value hierarchy that are descendants of 129284003|Surgical action (qualifier value)| will be inactivated. The complete list of concepts can be accessed here.

May 2023 International Release
20.Clinical Finding

Primary and Metastatic Project - New Metastatic Morphologic Abnormality Concepts

Metastatic disorders will be defined by their specific metastatic neoplastic morphologic abnormality concepts, and new metastatic morphologies are being added to the international edition of SNOMED CT as needed. In cooperation with the Netherlands extension of SNOMED CT, SNOMED International will be promoting certain of their existing metastatic morphology concepts to the International release to be used to model new metastatic disorder concepts. 

Completed May 2023 International Release
21.Procedure

Inactivation of Concepts of the Type “Administration of substance via X specific route (procedure)”

Concepts of the type “Administration of substance via X specific route (procedure)” will be replaced with concepts of type “Administration via X specific route (procedure)”.

This change is part of the Substance-Drug project and will allow for the unambiguous subsumption of the subtypes, if and once instances of 363701004 |Direct substance (attribute)|are modeled with subtypes of 373873005 |Pharmaceutical / biologic product (product)|.

The only remaining concept of this type will be the parent concept, 433590000 - Administration of substance via specific route (procedure). The change for this concept is is pending required MRCM changes, and will be applied once the required MRCM change is complete.

June 2023 International Release
22.MRCM

Update to MRCM

The domain and proximal primitive refinement will be updated to the MRCM of situations of findings and procedures.  The existing exclusion constraints for domains will be removed. The "associated finding" and "associated procedure" will be added as mandate requirements, and the contexts will be removed.  Further details are available 
here and here.

June 2023 International Release
23.Qualifier Value

Addition of AJCC Cancer Staging Content

New subtypes of 1222584008 |American Joint Committee on Cancer allowable value (qualifier value)|

Based on requests from several member countries through the Content Managers Advisory Group, AJCC have now approved addition to SNOMED CT of new cancer staging content as part of a joint collaborative process agreed between both organizations.

June 2023 International Release
24.Product

Change for Clinical Drug Concepts Containing Pancreatic Enzymes

Clinical drug concepts in the International Release containing pancreatic enzymes will be modeled based on the discrete enzymes; because of variability between real clinical drugs, synonyms representing a total amount in a particular product will not be included in the International Release.

The editorial guide and existing content will be reviewed and updated accordingly in a future release.

Completed in Q2 2023 International Release
25.Procedure

Dental "Fit X" concept updates

Dental procedure concepts in the format "Fit X” e.g. 234856007 |Fit removable orthodontic retainer (procedure)| will be inactivated with reason “ambiguous". This change has been agreed by the Dentistry CRG and will affect approximately 50 concepts. This work is part of Content Tracker IHTSDO-122

July 2023 release
26.Release Schedule

Plan to Move the International Monthly Release Date to the First of Each Month

After consultation with the community, SNOMED International will be changing the dates of the International Edition from the end of each month, to the first of each month.  This will mean that in addition to all of the other months, the “January” release will move from 31st January to the 1st January, and the “July” release will move from 31st July to 1st July each year.  

Further details of this proposal can be found here (https://www.snomed.org/news/blog%3A-the-snomed-ct-international-edition-to-be-published-on-first-day-of-each-month), however if you have any concerns in the meantime please provide feedback to release@snomed.org as soon as possible. 

1st September 2023
27.Clinical Finding

"Did not attend X" or "Attended X" Clinical Finding Concepts

Around 30 "did not attend X" or "attended X" findings concepts, e.g., 390923003 |Did not attend cardiac clinic (finding)|, will be inactivated from the international release as they are administrative concepts.

Around 20 "did not attend X" or "attended X" situation concepts, e.g., 310352003 |Mammography not attended (situation)|, will be inactivated from the international release as they are out of scope of this hierarchy.

September 2023 International Release
28.Clinical Finding

Measurement Findings

The six false positive and false negative measurement findings, e.g., 274684006 |False-positive serological test for syphilis (finding)|, will be inactivated with reason of Nonconformance to editorial policy.

September 2023 International Release
29.Product

Drug Content Analysis Project (DCAP) - Addition of Anti-Infective Clinical Drug Concepts 

DCAP was launched in September 2022 to identify clinical drug concepts that are published in participating National Release Center extensions and that are eligible for promotion to the international release (supported by appropriate references to authoritative source material).

Concepts that are already published in the Norwegian drug extension have been reviewed by multiple countries participating in the group and content eligible for promotion to the international release of SNOMED CT has been identified.

Approximately 100 concepts will be promoted to the international release and corresponding concepts for Medicinal Product (MP) 'containing only', and Medicinal Product Form (MPF) 'containing only' imported from Norway if missing. MP 'containing' concepts will be created in the international release as required.

September 2023 International Release
30.Product

Clinical drugs modeled with dose form 421366001 |Tablet for conventional release oral suspension (dose form)|

The dose form 421366001 |Tablet for conventional release oral suspension (dose form)| will be updated with the new Preferred Term 'Dispersible oral tablet'. This aligns with the EDQM standard.

37 clinical drugs that are defined with a dose form of  421366001 |Tablet for conventional release oral suspension (dose form)|  will have a new Preferred Term created for 'dispersible oral tablet' and the existing PT made a synonym.

September 2023 International Release
31.MRCM

Update to MRCM

1142142004 |Has pack size (attribute)|is an attribute that is used for modeling real clinical drugs in a national extension (not for use in the international edition of SNOMED CT). The current MRCM prevents national extensions from using a decimal to define a pack size (for example, a 3.5 milliliter bottle) as it limits the attribute range to whole integers only.

The MRCM will be changed for Has pack size (attribute)|from Integer to Decimal.

September 2023 International Release
32.Qualifier Value

Resolution of Dose Form Inconsistency for 421366001 | Tablet for conventional release oral suspension (dose form)

The Preferred Term (PT) of 421366001 | Tablet for conventional release oral suspension (dose form) | will be updated from “tablet for oral suspension” to “dispersible oral tablet.”

This is in line with EDQM (also national data sets) where a dispersible tablet is equivalent to a tablet for oral suspension.

The PT of 37 clinical drugs (CDs) that currently have a mixture of names will be updated to all use “dispersible oral tablet”. Therefore, users will be able to search for and translate these CDs more effectively.

September 2023 International Release
33.Substance

New Subtypes of 1155866009 |Messenger ribonucleic acid of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 encoding spike protein (substance)|

New subtypes will be added to 1155866009 |Messenger ribonucleic acid of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 encoding spike protein (substance)| including:

  • "SARS-CoV-2 mRNA encoding B lineage spike protein" (i.e. "SARS-CoV-2 mRNA encoding original strain spike protein")
  • Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 mRNA encoding BA.1 lineage spike protein
  • Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 mRNA encoding BA.4/BA.5 lineage spike protein

These concepts will be created to meet the requirement for creation of bivalent vaccines (usually containing original strain + an omicron variant). In addition, creation of "SARS-CoV-2 mRNA encoding original strain spike protein" will allow for accurately representing monovalent vaccines containing "SARS-CoV-2 mRNA encoding B lineage spike protein" (original strain)."

September 2023 International Release
34.Clinical Finding

Update Hierarchy 90708001 |Kidney disease (disorder)|

As part of the Quality Initiative Project, work has commenced on 90708001 |Kidney disease (disorder)|. Work is being undertaken in stages and upcoming sub-hierarchies will be posted here as the work progresses:

  • 236423003 |Renal impairment (disorder)| -  completed.

The remaining content areas in this hierarachy will be reviewed and updated as part of the QI project. 

2023 International Release 
35.Clinical Finding

Concepts with "...attend.. X"

Around 40 "attends X" or "attending X" findings concepts, e.g., 160766005 |Midwife attends 14-16 days post-discharge (finding)| will be inactivated from the international release as they are administrative concepts. 

October 2023 International Release
36.MRCM

Update to MRCM

Extend the domain of 246454002 |Occurrence (attribute)| by including << 71388002 |Procedure (procedure)|.

The following is the expected MRCM range after the change.

246454002 |Occurrence (attribute)| << 272379006 |Event (event)| OR << 404684003 |Clinical finding (finding)| OR << 71388002 |Procedure (procedure)|

October 2023 International Release
37.Observable Entity

Review of CRS Requests in “Awaiting agreement compliance” Status from SNOMED CT – LOINC Cooperation Project

CRS requests in “Awaiting agreement compliance” status due to the previous cooperative agreement between SNOMED International and Regenstrief Institute, Inc. have been reviewed in light of the new cooperative agreement, the latest SNOMED CT Editorial Guide, and the latest CRS guidance documents. Concepts deemed in scope are being added.

Completed October 2023 International Release
38.Social Context

Inactivation of Subtypes of 125676002|Person (person)|

The following concepts will be inactivated:

444145006 |Partner in relationship with subject (person)| - historical association to 262043009 |Partner in relationship (person)|

444210007 |Cohabitee in relationship with subject (person)| - historical association to 394921008 |Cohabitee (person)|

The Editorial Guide states that the Subject relationship context (attribute) is used to specify the subject of the Clinical finding or Procedure being recorded, in relation to the subject of the record; therefore, the above two concepts are unnecessary.

October 2023 International Release
39.Situation With Explicit Context

"X result not back (situation)" concepts

Four concepts of the type "X result not back (situation)," e.g., 168709001 |Soft tissue X-ray result not back (situation)|, will be inactivated as they are out of scope for the international edition of SNOMED CT.

October 2023 International Release

40.Situation With Explicit Context

Update Hierarchy 271903000|History of pregnancy (situation)

Content relating to past pregnancy history of the subject of the record will be remodeled to subsume under the parent 271903000|History of pregnancy (situation)|.

Fully specified name and preferred term will be updated to explicitly state 'Past pregnancy history of.'

161811009|History of perinatal fetal loss (situation)| and 726626004|History of neonatal death (situation)| will be inactivated and replaced by concepts:

Past pregnancy history of neonatal death (situation)
Past pregnancy history of late neonatal death (situation)
Past pregnancy history of early neonatal death (situation)
Past pregnancy history of perinatal death (situation)
Family history of perinatal death (situation)
Family history of neonatal death (situation)

October 2023 International Release

41.MRCM

Update to MRCM

The MRCM for Administration of substance via specific route (procedure) is no longer needed. The domain 433590000 |Administration of substance via specific route (procedure)| is replaced by a new concept 1285465008 |Administration via specific route (procedure)|

Instances of “Administration of substance via X specific route (procedure)” have been replaced with concepts of type “Administration via X specific route (procedure)”. This change is part of the Substance-Drug project and allows for the unambiguous subsumption of the subtypes, if and once instances of 363701004 |Direct substance (attribute)|are modeled with subtypes of 373873005 |Pharmaceutical / biologic product (product)|. 

October 2023 International Release
42.Clinical Finding

Update for Concepts Using 'Caused by'

Clinical finding concepts containing "Caused by" in their FSN will be reviewed and will be updated (if applicable) according to the editorial guidelines related to causation here. The main focus of the review will be the following category of concepts:

  • Concepts containing "Caused by" in their FSN that have a synonym (including PT), which contains “Due to”
  • Concepts where FSN contains "Caused by" and "Due to"

Additional content update may become applicable while reviewing these concepts for example: 

  • Concepts that do not contain “Caused by” or “Due to” in their FSN, but contain one of these terms as their preferred terms
  • Concepts containing “Due “to in their FSN that have a preferred term which contains “Caused by”.
  • Poisoning caused by (due to) organism sting or bite. 
November 2023 International Release
43.Procedure

Remodel for Heart Valve Replacement Procedure Concepts

Heart valve replacement concepts will be remodeled as a surgical replacement procedure. Distinction will be made between replacement of native valves and implanted prosthetic valves. Updates for concepts with a prosthetic valve will include both mechanical and biological valves.

Surgical REMOVAL and REPLACEMENT may not occur at the same point in time so a surgical replacement procedure may not subsume under surgical REMOVAL. These surgical methods are at the same level within the hierarchy.

November 2023 International Release
44.Substance

Review of 35331000 |Toxic substance (substance)|

35331000 |Toxic substance is an ambiguous concept and will be inactivated; it can refer to any substance that has been used in amount that is harmful for health (including medication), a toxin, heavy metals, or preservatives--not all of these are currently children of 35331000 |Toxic substance (substance)|. In addition, concepts defined by 35331000 |Toxic substance (substance)| will be reviewed;  their terming and modeling will be updated where applicable, specifically where the FSN and attribute/value do not match.

November 2023 International Release
45.Clinical Finding

Update hierarchy 263026000|Dislocation of perilunate joint (disorder)|

A new supertype concept 1290805004 |Dislocation of joint of lunate (disorder)| will be added with subtypes: 

  • 1290885002 |Dislocation of lunate bone (disorder)|
  • 263026000 |Dislocation of perilunate joint (disorder)|

Subtype content will be remodeled. A text definition will be added for 263026000 |Dislocation of perilunate joint (disorder)|.

The FSN for 264132003|Structure of perilunate joint (body structure)| will be updated to 264132003 |Structure of joint of lunate (body structure)|.

November 2023 International Release
46.Procedure

Remodeling of Subtypes of 128422009 |Destruction using electrical energy (procedure)|

Procedures using electrical energy classified as Diathermy (procedure) and Electro X (procedure) will be remodeled and reclassified according to the main action performed and the expected result of such action.

424244007 |Using energy (attribute)|= 18213006 |Electricity (physical force)| will be added with and updates to the descriptions.

Further information about these change is available here.

December 2023 International Release
47.Procedure

Inactivation of Procedure Concepts with AND/OR in FSN.

Classification derived concepts under 71388002 |Procedure (procedure)|using AND/OR in FSN will be inactivated in alignment with Editorial Guidance. As needed, new concepts will be created to substitute inactivated concepts without ambiguity.

Subtypes of 1263452006 |Anesthesia and/or sedation procedure (procedure)| and 108290001 |Radiation oncology AND/OR radiotherapy (procedure)| will be inactivated or modified only if needed to align with other inactivations.

December 2023 International Release
48.Procedure

Remodeling of Non-Surgical Drainage Procedures

Normalization of attributes used for Procedure site direct/indirect, Indirect/direct morphology and Direct/indirect substance will be performed for concepts modeled with 260686004 |Method (attribute)|= 129289008 |Drainage - action (qualifier value)|.

Alignment and normalization is needed for subsequent remodeling of Surgical drainage procedures.

December 2023 International Release
49.Clinical Finding 

Update Model and Descriptions for Fetal, Neonatal and Perinatal Jaundice Disorder Concepts

A review of content in this area has been undertaken.

The semantic tag for concepts representing “Jaundice due to X” and “Jaundice caused by Y” will be updated from (disorder) to (finding); their modeling and descriptions will be updated accordingly.

Concepts of type “Jaundice due to and co-occurrent with Z” will retain “is_a” relationship to “Z (disorder)”; their semantic tag will be retained as “disorder”.

The "Occurrence" attribute value for perinatal jaundice findings will be updated to 1156671008 |Maternal perinatal period (qualifier value)|. This change is required to reflect the fact that these findings are related to the mother, who has the jaundice, rather than the fetus. 

December 2023 International Release
50.Situation With Explicit Context

Inactivation of 168123008 |Sample sent for examination (situation)| and Descendants

168123008 |Sample sent for examination (situation)| and its ~90 descendant concepts will be inactivated as out of scope of the international release of SNOMED CT.

December 2023 International Release


Project Information and Work in Progress

Item

Hierarchy/Topic

INFORMATION ABOUT PROJECTS AND WORK IN PROGRESS

Planned Release timing

(*this is provisional only and is subject to change)

1.General Information

Browse Content Changes for the International Release

For content changes that are ready for publication in the next release please browse here

Concept Inactivation

For concept inactivations that are for publication in the next release please browse here

MRCM Changes

Forthcoming MRCM changes can be viewed here

Quality Initiative

Information about the project can found here

Content Request Service (CRS)

Please see Guidance for Requesting Changes to SNOMED CT

Further information about CRS is available here.

Content Development

Information can be accessed here.


2.Project Information

Cancer Synoptic Reporting

Concepts representing cancer synoptic reporting content will be added to the International release starting with the July 2021 release. 

Cancer synoptic reports are used by many member countries to record pathology examination of cancer specimens including the College of American Pathologists (US and Canada), Royal College of Pathology (UK), Royal College of Pathology Australasia (Australia, New Zealand), PALGA (The Netherlands), Swedish Society of Pathology, and others.

This content primarily encompasses observable entity concepts and also includes supporting concepts from other hierarchies, e.g. property values.

For more information about this project, please see the Cancer Synoptic Reporting Clinical Project Group here

2023 International Release and future releases
3.Project Information

Epilepsy Content ILAE Collaboration

Review of << 313287004 |Seizure related finding (finding)| and << 84757009 |Epilepsy (disorder)| (excluding Orphanet related content) for currency and clinical correctness with the addition of missing clinically relevant content. 

Please refer to the project status report for further information.

2023 International Release and future releases

Expected completion by mid 2024

4.Project Information

Nutrition Content

Information about the work of the Nutrition Care Process Clinical Project group is available here.

2023 International Release and future releases
5.

Project Information

Content Improvements in the Substance and Product Hierarchies

Please see briefing notes here Drugs Project

2023 International Release and future releases

6.Content Improvement

Implementation of the new anatomy concept model

The completion of the revision of hierarchical relationships provides stable anatomy content and improves the quality of classification results in other hierarchies.

Over forthcoming releases, the plan is to implement the new anatomy concept model. There are almost 35,000 anatomy concepts and they will be modeled by different types of 'part of' relationships. The new model will enable us to automatically generate hierarchies to further improve quality and consistency. 

Information about the work completed in previous release for revision of IS_A relationships can be viewed here

2023 International Release and future releases

7.

Content Improvement

Update for Inactive Concepts Without Semantic Tag

Remaining cases of the legacy issue inactive concepts with active FSN without a semantic tag (Content Tracker IHTSDO-645) will be addressed to assign a semantic tag.  The number of inactive concepts requiring this update is 351.

2023 International Release
8.Content Improvement

Disorder X without Disorder Y

The vast majority of existing X without Y concepts originated from ICD-9 with the specific meaning of "X disorder without mention of Y disorder".  As the phraseology indicates a lack of data about disorder Y as opposed to a specific exclusion, this type of concept has not been included in ICD-10, nor proposed for ICD-11, except in the case of "Traumatic brain injury without open intracranial wound".  

Addition of new X without Y concepts may only be made under the following conditions:

  1. The request for new content must be accompanied by a rationale as to the difference between "X disorder without Y disorder" and "X disorder."
  2. Approval for addition is given by the Head of Terminology.

For the most part, existing X without Y concepts will be inactivated as AMBIGUOUS with a historical MAY BE relationship to "X disorder".  Exceptions to inactivation will be made on a case-by-case basis.

2023 International Release and future releases
9.Content Improvement

Planned changes to Implantation and Insertion procedures

Work commenced on content tracker IHTSDO-175.  Ongoing structural changes for the Procedure concepts related to the content tracker, more information is available here

2023 International Release and future releases

10.Content Improvement

Planned changes to 'Co-occurrent and due to' pattern

During the implementation of the new Description Logic features a conflict was uncovered between the modeling of 'Co-occurrent and due to' and General Concept Inclusions (GCIs). This has resulted in the need to reconsider the modeling of "Co-occurrent and due' and update the Editorial Guide for this area.

The plan is to update the Editorial Guide and all concepts that are currently modeled as 'Co-occurrent and due to' starting from the July 2019 release.

2023 International Release and future releases

11.Content Improvement

WAS_A

Inactivation reason of LIMITED/WAS_A is not allowed for any new content inactivations after the July 2018 release. The WAS_A association refset has not been updated thereafter.

At the Editorial Advisory Group meeting in April 2019, agreement was reached to discontinue the maintenance of WAS_A relationships when inactivating concepts that have a historical association to an inactive concept. When changes are made to a historical relationship for a concept that was previously inactivated using WAS_A, effort will be made to assign a new historical relationship that facilitates traceability of the concept (e.g. DUPLICATE or AMBIGUOUS) as opposed to NON-CONFORMANCE TO EDITORIAL POLICY.

Existing WAS_A relationships will be inactivated in a future release once a plan for batch reassignment of historical relationships has been developed. Until then, SNOMED International will not continue to use or maintain WAS_A relationships.

2023 International Release and future releases