International standards organisation for SNOMED proposed

SNOMED International, an arm of The College of American Pathologists (CAP) and NHS Connecting for Health, the agency in charge of NHS IT modernisation, have announced plans to establish an international Standards Development Organistion to promote SNOMED CT.

The aim is to create an international standards organisation that will enable countries and national authorities to take a lead role in the development, ownership and maintenance of SNOMED CT.

NHS CfH will partner with the CAP to create the new organisation. A development proposal for the new standards organisation has been sent out to healthcare information technology leaders worldwide to gauge their potential interest in becoming charter members and establishing SNOMED CT as a global, worldwide clinical terminology.

Charter members will be expected to make a significant investment in the new standards development organisation, which it is proposed will be based in Switzerland. Development of SNOMED CT to date has so far largely been funded by the CAP and NHS.

SNOMED CT is a standardised healthcare terminology including comprehensive coverage of diseases, clinical findings, therapies, procedures and outcomes. The terminology is one of the core standards to be mandated by CfH in all the systems of the NHS IT modernisation programme.

The system of clinical terminology provides the core general terminology for the electronic health record (EHR) and contains more than 357,000 concepts with unique meanings and logic-based definitions organised into hierarchies.

When implemented in software applications, SNOMED CT is designed to represent clinically relevant information consistently, reliably and comprehensively as an integral part of producing electronic health records.

According to the CAP SNOMED CT represents the most comprehensive multilingual clinical healthcare terminology available in the world.

"The successful creation of an international SNOMED SDO will assure the clinical and technical integrity of the SNOMED CT global comprehensive clinical terminology. The SNOMED SDO will facilitate national healthcare systems in improving the health of their citizens through the use of information technology, which can serve as the foundation for the electronic medical health record," said Thomas Sodeman, MD, CAP President.

Soderman added: "Furthering SNOMED CT development and use through an international SDO is the next logical step in facilitating SNOMED CT’s implementation worldwide."

Richard Granger, CEO of NHS Connecting for Health, said the Department of Health fully supported the creation of the new international standards organisation. "SNOMED CT provides the first opportunity for global standards of healthcare terminology and therefore data. The adoption and co-development of this standard by governments around the world presents the opportunity for significant health and efficiency benefits."

Granger drew parallels with the convenience of standards that enable the Global System for Mobile (GSM), now used by 1.5 billion users, as an indication of the of the kinds of benefits a standard international systems of clinical terminology could deliver to patients and clinicians.

"Implementing a standardised clinical terminology will also help to ensure that complex and dangerous data migration activities are mitigated or avoided," added Granger

Franklin Elevitch, MD, chair, SNOMED International Authority, added: "The clinical and technical integrity of SNOMED CT needs to be preserved and expanded in an international environment that is owned and maintained for the benefit of citizens worldwide."

The NHS’ contribution to SNOMED CT has already been substantial. Answering a Parliamentary Question in October 2001, the then health minister Hazel Blears said that the NHS was committed to contributing $3m for each of the three years beginning April 1999 to SNOMED CT and its earlier versions.

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