SNOMED

SNOMED, short for Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine, is a comprehensive, multilingual clinical terminology used to encode medical information in health records and related systems. The current international edition, SNOMED CT, is designed to support consistent representation of clinical concepts across organizations and countries.

SNOMED CT consists of concepts with unique numeric identifiers, descriptions (including preferred terms and synonyms), and relationships that connect concepts to form hierarchies and defined semantics. It supports post-coordination to create refined concepts beyond pre-coordinated terms, enabling precise coding of complex clinical ideas. The underlying formal logic facilitates automated reasoning to infer related findings or treatments.

Governance and access: SNOMED International, formerly the IHTSDO, develops and maintains SNOMED CT. It licenses the terminology to member countries and organizations, typically through national release centers or similar arrangements. SNOMED CT is designed to map to other coding schemes such as ICD-10-CM, ICD-11, and LOINC to enhance interoperability between health information systems.

Applications and impact: The terminology is used to support data capture, clinical decision support, reporting, quality measurement, epidemiology, and research. Its granular representation enables sophisticated analytics, improves data quality, and facilitates interoperability across different EHR systems and care settings.