SNOMED CT — Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms

Overview

SNOMED CT is a comprehensive clinical healthcare terminology maintained by SNOMED International. It contains over 350,000 active concepts as of 2024, covering diseases, clinical findings, procedures, body structures, substances, organisms, and observable entities, all described with formal, machine-readable definitions and organised in a polyhierarchical structure. It was first released in 2002 from the merger of SNOMED RT (College of American Pathologists) and Clinical Terms Version 3 (UK NHS).

Concept Model

SNOMED CT uses a description logic model in which concepts are formally defined by typed relationships to other concepts. Each concept has a unique numeric SCTID, human-readable descriptions (Fully Specified Name, Preferred Term, Synonyms), and IS-A and attribute relationships that define its meaning and position in the hierarchy.

Connections

• Designated by: EHDS (referenced clinical terminology for EHR content)
• Maps to: ICD-10, ICD-11 (official WHO cross-maps maintained by SNOMED International)
• French coordination: ANS (National Release Centre France)

Resources

• https://www.snomed.org
• https://browser.ihtsdotools.org (SNOMED CT browser)
• https://www.snomed.org/snomed-ct/get-snomed (licensing and national releases)
• https://esante.gouv.fr/terminologies (ANS, French NRC)