SNOMED CT

SNOMED CT is a structured clinical vocabulary for use in an electronic health record. It is the most comprehensive and precise clinical health terminology product in the world.

NHS Digital SNOMED CT Browser
This online browser is now our preferred SNOMED CT Browser for the NHS to use. It contains the SNOMED CT International release, the UK Clinical Extensions and the UK Drug Extension.

SNOMED CT implementation in primary care
The transition from using Read codes in primary care to using SNOMED CT is being managed under the national GPSoC framework.

SNOMED CT requests for change
Use the requests submission portal to request changes to SNOMED CT in the UK and separately Scotland, UK Drug Extension or Dictionary of Medicines and Devices (dm+d).

SNOMED CT resources
Find important publications, education and training materials, blog entries, useful links and much more, on our sharing website Delen.

SNOMED CT webinars
Select dates and register your place now.

SNOMED CT forms an integral part of the electronic care record. It represents care information in a clear, consistent, and comprehensive manner.

The move to a single terminology, SNOMED CT, for the direct management of care of an individual, across all care settings in England, is recommended by the National Information Board (NIB), in ' Personalised Health and Care 2020: A Framework for Action'.

Benefits

The benefits of using SNOMED CT in electronic care records are:

vital information can be shared consistently within and across health and care settings,
comprehensive coverage and greater depth of details and content for all clinical specialities and professionals
it includes diagnosis and procedures, symptoms, family history, allergies, assessment tools, observations, devices
clinical decision making is supported
it facilitates analysis to support more extensive clinical audit and research
reduced risk of misinterpretations of the record in different care settings

Implementation plans

In England:

SNOMED CT must be implemented across primary care settings by April 2018. Systems used by GP service providers must adopt SNOMED CT as the clinical terminology within the system before 1 April 2018. SNOMED CT must be used in place of Read codes before 1 April 2018.
Secondary Care, Acute Care, Mental Health, Community systems, Dentistry and other systems used in direct patient care must use SNOMED CT as the clinical terminology, before 1 April 2020.

SNOMED CT management

SNOMED CT is owned, managed and licensed by SNOMED International.

NHS Digital is the UK Member's National Release Centre for the creation of, and delegated authority to licence the SNOMED CT Edition and derivatives.

SNOMED CT is maintained and distributed in the United Kingdom by NHS Digital. External governance is provided by the UK Strategy Board, which includes representation from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

SNOMED CT UK Edition Release

NHS Digital provides the release files, subsets, mappings and related documents for those using SNOMED CT UK Edition within their systems. These are available in different packs to help you identify the sets of files required. These can be downloaded via TRUD (a website which allows NHS Digital to license and distribute reference data).

Registering for pack download and SNOMED CT licence

The use of SNOMED CT is free within the UK. You will need to register for the download service, subscribe for each pack you need and agree to the terms of the associated licences.

SNOMED CT products

Further details about the SNOMED CT UK Edition and the SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension are on the SNOMED CT section on Delen.

SNOMED CT UK Derivative Products

We also provide packs on TRUD containing data files that support SNOMED CT implementations. These are usually subsets of the main release or files that provide added value, such as mapping tables.

Please see the SNOMED CT section on Delen for details of:

UK Clinical Edition, RF1 Cross-maps
NHS Data Migration
SNOMED Antecedent Versions Data Migration

Further details about Clinical Imaging Procedures, SNOMED CT Subsets and SNOMED CT browsers can be found on the SNOMED CT section on Delen.

Licensing of SNOMED CT

The UK is a SNOMED International member country. Use of SNOMED CT in the UK is free, however the use of SNOMED CT does require a licence.

Licensing enquiries

All SNOMED CT licensing enquiries can be sent to information.standards@nhs.net.

SNOMED^® and SNOMED CT^® are registered trademarks of SNOMED International. SNOMED CT^® was originally created by the College of American Pathologists.