Questions

• Is the use of SNOMED CT in the clinical setting mandatory for clinical documentation?
• What is the regulatory process to implement the choice of terminologies in healthcare organizations?
• Why do countries choose SNOMED CT?

3.1. Is the use of SNOMED CT in the clinical setting mandatory for clinical documentation?

National policies are in place to endorse the use of SNOMED CT in several countries, including Australia, Canada, England, India, Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden and the United States. The United States has mandated the use of SNOMED CT for various standardized health data classes and elements for nationwide interoperable health information exchange. The United Kingdom has mandated the use of SNOMED CT through a process linked to funding routes. In Singapore and Australia, SNOMED CT is used in the national EHR.  And in New Zealand SNOMED is required by the Health Information Standards Organisation (HISO) as a standard for the health and disability system.

3.2. What is the regulatory process to implement the choice of terminologies in healthcare organizations?

In countries where SNOMED CT has been regulated, SNOMED CT is implemented through a process of mandation that is linked to funding. The process usually includes some form of minimum requirements, testing and/or software certification.

3.3. Why do countries choose SNOMED CT?

SNOMED CT has become the preferred clinical terminology in many countries, for the following reasons:

• • The breadth and depth of clinical content that covers a wide range of clinical areas and specialties.
  • ts broad adoption and acceptance globally speaks to the quality and usefulness across geographic regions and use cases.
  • Its suitability as a common reference terminology for data interoperability between healthcare providers, healthcare organisations, geographic regions and countries.
  • Its ability to be customized to support local concepts and language requirements.
  • Its ability to support sophisticated data analytics for clinical decision making, population health and clinical research.
  • Its formal foundation in Description Logic which enables more consistent and high quality authoring and validation of clinical content.
  • SNOMED International’s effective strategic alliances with other standards organizations allows for alignment of standards and tools.  For example, the mappings available between SNOMED CT and a range of other code systems include ICD-9, ICD-10, LOINC, ICPC, OPCS-4 and MedDRA.

·       Its regular release and clinical review processes, which enable continual clinical review, feedback and addition of new clinical content.