Following the announcements earlier this year regarding the proposal to increase the character limit for Descriptions, we would like to remind the community that the deadline for feedback on the proposal is 31st December 2024.

Please see the original proposal here, and provide any feedback via the form before the deadline:  

• https://www.snomed.org/news/blog%3A-snomed-international-seeks-community-feedback-on-proposed-description-character-limit-increase
• https://confluence.ihtsdotools.org/display/mag/SNOMED+International+Proposal+to+Increase+Description+Length+Limit
• https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1cBxZnJDV5cy_5hkWaCc02xXhFaz8-2c6JI6yppQ8QUE/viewform?edit_requested=true

Please note the following key points to consider and feed back on:

• Some of the feedback so far has suggested users may need more than 12 months (from the start of the consultation period) to prepare for the change, and therefore the current planned transition date would be January 2026.
• Thus far, no use case for this length increase has yet been identified for the International Edition outside of the Medicinal Product Hierarchy.
• In addition to this, SNOMED International is planning to increase a small number of existing terms beyond the current 255 characters, in order to remove ambiguity in some of the medicinal product terms.  Whilst the limit would increase to a maximum of 4096 characters, the existing terms identified for an increase in character length are currently expected to increase to approximately 330 characters.  Currently less than 20 existing International Edition terms have been identified for an increase beyond 255 characters, but the final figure and proposed character lengths are subject to change.
  
  • For example:
    • id    effectiveTime    active    moduleId    conceptId    languageCode    typeId    term    caseSignificanceId
      
    • 5089025013    20240505    1    900000000000207008    1162634005    en    900000000000003001    Pediatric vaccine product containing only acellular Bordetella pertussis antigen and Clostridium tetani toxoid antigen and Corynebacterium diphtheriae toxoid antigen and Haemophilus influenzae type b capsular polysaccharide conjugated antigen and Hepatitis B virus and inactivated whole Human poliovirus antigen (medicinal product)    900000000000020002

We will publish the results of the consultation once it is complete, and confirm timelines for the transition.

Kind regards

Andrew Atkinson  |  Release Manager