What is SNOMED CT and why are we using it?

What is SNOMED CT?

SNOMED CT is a standardised health care vocabulary and we are adopting it within the development of the UKCRC Tissue Directory. Every project involving data will have some form of data standard, whether it is formalised to the level of SNOMED CT or whether it is just an informal understanding.

Much of the work we have undertaken to date was based on the excellent work of the Confederation of Cancer Biobanks (CCB) and their data standard. The CCB data standard as drafted, however, did not define the terms to be used and this is why we have turned to SNOMED CT.

The we use SNOMED CT is linked heavily to the decision to use it within all health care environments within the UK. The hope is that by adopting SNOMED CT, and by building this into our systems (and therefore into how sample resources describe themselves), we will help sample resource be prepared for handling SNOMED CT terms from other healthcare systems.

https://www.biobankinguk.org/snomed-ct-using/