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SNOMED CT and ICD
SNOMED CT is a clinical terminology designed to capture and represent patient data for clinical purposes. International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is a statistical classification system used to assign diagnostic and procedural codes in order to produce coded data for statistical analysis, epidemiology, reimbursement and resource allocation. Both systems use standardized definitions and form a common medical language used within the electronic health record (EHR) systems. SNOMED CT enables information input into EHR during the course of patient care, while ICD facilitates information retrieval, or output, for secondary data purposes.

Original version
Over four decades, SNOMED has developed from a pathology-specific nomenclature (SNOP) into a logic-based health care terminology. In January 2002, SNOMED CT was created by the merger, expansion, and restructuring of the College of American Pathologists (CAP) SNOMED RT (Reference Terminology) and the UK National Health Service (NHS) Clinical Terms (also known as the Read codes). The historical strength of the SNOMED was its coverage of medical specialties, while the strength of Clinical Terms Version 3 was its terminologies for general practice. SNOMED CT cross maps to such other terminologies as ICD-9-CM, ICD-O3, ICD-10, Laboratory LOINC and OPCS-4. It supports ANSI, DICOM, HL7, and ISO standards. SNOMED CT is currently used in a joint project with the WHO as the ontological basis of the upcoming ICD 11. The National Library of Medicine (NLM), on behalf of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, entered into an agreement with College of American Pathologists for a perpetual license for the core SNOMED CT (in Spanish and English) and ongoing updates. The contract provides to NLM a perpetual license to distribute SNOMED within the NLM’s Unified Medical Language System UMLS Metathesaurus for no cost use within the U.S. by both U.S. government (federal, state, local, and territorial) and private organizations. The contract also covers updates to SNOMED CT issued by the College of American Pathologists between June 30, 2003 and June 29, 2008. In April 2007, SNOMED CT was acquired by IHTSDO, The International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation. SNOMED CT is currently available in American English, British English, Spanish, Danish, and Swedish with other translations under way or nearly completed in French, and Dutch.

Improved version
SNOMED was started in 1965 as a Systematized Nomenclature of Pathology (SNOP) and has further developed into a logic-based health care terminology. SNOMED CT was created in 1999 by the merger, expansion and restructuring of two large-scale terminologies: SNOMED Reference Terminology (SNOMED RT), developed by the College of American Pathologists (CAP); and the Clinical Terms Version 3 (CTV3) (formerly known as the Read codes), developed by the National Health Service of the United Kingdom (NHS) .The final product was released in January 2002.

The historical strength of SNOMED was its coverage of medical specialties. SNOMED RT, with over 120,000 concepts, was designed to serve as a common reference terminology for the aggregation and retrieval of health care data recorded by multiple organizations and individuals. The strength of CTV3 was its terminologies for general practice. CTV3, with 200,000 interrelated concepts, was used for storing structured information about primary care encounters in individual, patient-based records .Currently, SNOMED CT contains more than 311,000 active concepts and provides the core general terminology for the electronic health record (EHR).

In July 2003, the National Library of Medicine (NLM), on behalf of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, entered into an agreement with the College of American Pathologists to make SNOMED CT available to U.S. users at no cost through the National Library of Medicine's Unified Medical Language Systems UMLS Metathesaurus. The contract provided NLM with a perpetual license for the core SNOMED CT (in Spanish and English) and its ongoing updates.

In April 2007, SNOMED CT intellectual property rights were transferred from the CAP to the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation IHTSDO in order to promote international adoption and use of SNOMED CT. IHTSDO is responsible for "ongoing maintenance, development, quality assurance, and distribution of SNOMED CT" internationally and consists of a number of the world's leading e-health countries, including: Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Sloval Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States and Uruguay.

SNOMED CT is a multinational and multilingual terminology, which can manage different languages and dialects. SNOMED CT is currently available in American English, British English, Spanish, Danish and Swedish, with other translations under way or nearly completed in French and Dutch. SNOMED CT cross maps to other terminologies, such as: ICD-9-CM, ICD-10, ICD-O-3, ICD-10-AM, Laboratory LOINC and OPCS-4. It supports ANSI, DICOM, HL7, and ISO standards. SNOMED CT is currently used in a joint project with the WHO as the ontological basis of the upcoming ICD-11.

Old Version
SNOMED CT (Systematized Nomenclature Of Medicine Clinical Terms), is a systematically organised computer processable collection of medical terms providing codes, terms, synonyms and definitions covering diseases, findings, procedures, microorganisms, substances, etc. It allows a consistent way to index, store, retrieve, and aggregate clinical data across specialties and sites of care. It also helps in organizing the content of medical records, reducing the variability in the way data is captured, encoded and used for clinical care of patients and research. The primary purpose of SNOMED CT is to support the effective clinical recording of data with the aim of improving patient care. It is a structured collection of medical terms that are used internationally for recording clinical information and are coded in order to be computer processable. It covers areas such as diseases, symptoms, operations, treatments, devices and drugs. Its purpose is to consistently index, store, retrieve, and aggregate clinical data across specialties and sites of care. It helps organizing the content of electronic health records systems, reducing the variability in the way data is captured, encoded and used for clinical care of patients and research. Specific language editions are available which augment the international Edition and can contain language translations as well as additional national terms. SNOMED CT is considered by some to be the most comprehensive, multilingual clinical healthcare terminology in the world. It provides for consistent information interchange and is fundamental to an interoperable electronic health record. It can be used to record the clinical details of individuals in electronic patient records and support application functionality such as informed decision making, linkage to clinical care pathways and knowledge resources, shared care plans and as such support long term patient care. The availability of free automatic coding tools and services, which can return a ranked list of SNOMED CT descriptors to encode any clinical report, could help healthcare professionals to navigate the terminology.

Improved Version
SNOMED CT (Systematized Nomenclature Of Medicine Clinical Terms), is a systematically organised computer processable collection of medical terms providing codes, terms, synonyms and definitions used in clinical documentation and reporting. SNOMED CT is considred to be the most comprehensive, multilingual clinical healthcare terminology in the world. The primary purpose of SNOMED CT is to encode the meanings that are used in health information and to support the effective clinical recording of data with the aim of improving patient care. SNOMED CT provides the core general terminology for electronic health record (EHR). SNOMED CT comprehensive coverage includes: clinical findings, symptoms, diagnoses, procedures, body structures, organisms and other etiologies, substances, pharmaceuticals, devices and specimen.

SNOMED CT provides for consistent information interchange and is fundamental to an interoperable electronic health record. It allows a consistent way to index, store, retrieve, and aggregate clinical data across specialties and sites of care. It also helps in organizing the content of electronic health records systems by reducing the variability in the way data is captured, encoded and used for clinical care of patients and research. SNOMED CT can be used to record clinical details of individuals in the electronic patient records. It also provides the user with a number of linkages to clinical care pathways, shared care plans and other knowledge resources, in order to facilitate informed decision-making and support long term patient care. The availability of free automatic coding tools and services, which can return a ranked list of SNOMED CT descriptors to encode any clinical report, could help healthcare professionals to navigate the terminology.

SNOMED CT is a terminology that can cross-map to other international standards and classifications. Specific language editions are available which augment the international edition and can contain language translations, as well as additional national terms. For example, SNOMED CT-AU®, released in December 2009 in Australia, is based on the international version of SNOMED CT, but encompasses words and ideas that are clinically and technically unique to Australia.

Additions to Structure paragraph
SNOMED CT consists of four primary core components:
 * 1) Concept Codes - numerical codes that identify clinical terms, primitive or defined, organized in hierarchies
 * 2) Descriptions - textual descriptions of Concept Codes
 * 3) Relationships - relationships between Concept Codes that have a related meaning
 * 4) Reference Sets - used to group Concepts or Descriptions into sets, including reference sets and cross-maps to other classifications and standards.