Ownership of SNOMED CT® transferred to new international organisation

The newly-formed International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO®, also known as SNOMED SDO®) has acquired the intellectual property rights of SNOMED Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT®) and its antecedents from the College of American Pathologists (CAP) for $7.8 million, marking a milestone in the international standardization of health data.

The new international organization is assuming responsibility for the ongoing maintenance, development, quality assurance, and distribution of SNOMED CT®. The CAP will continue to support SDO operations under an initial 3-year contract and will continue to provide SNOMED-related products and services as a licensee of the terminology.

"We are delighted with the initial success of this truly international undertaking," said Professor Martin Severs, IHTSDO® Management Board chair. "Making SNOMED CT available this way is an example of how global health cooperation can benefit health systems, services, and products around the world."

"As the international adoption and use of SNOMED CT® has grown, it has become apparent that an international governance structure that is open to the entire global healthcare community would be to everyone's benefit," said Thomas Sodeman, MD, FCAP, president of the College of American Pathologists. "The College is proud to have assisted in this important milestone."

When implemented in software applications, SNOMED CT® can be used to represent clinically relevant information consistently worldwide as an integral part of producing standardized electronic health records. With a history dating back to 1965, SNOMED CT® (Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms) is considered to be the most comprehensive, multilingual clinical healthcare terminology in the world.

SNOMED CT® was formed in 1999 by the convergence of SNOMED Reference Terminology (SNOMED RT®) and the United Kingdom's Clinical Terms Version 3 (formerly known as the Read Codes). Use of SNOMED CT® can support more effective and efficient health care and prevention within individual countries while also supporting enhanced international public health and research activities.

About the IHTSDO®
The IHTSDO® is registered as a not-for-profit association within Denmark. Its Charter Members are organizations representing Australia, Canada, Denmark, Lithuania, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Membership is open to all countries, and there is a provision for sponsored use in developing countries. The IHTSDO® will establish formal harmonization activities with other organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), to promote effective interoperability between SNOMED CT® and other health data standards. A description of IHTSDO®'s principles and objectives, open and participatory governance process, and uniform licensing terms is at http://www.ihtsdo.org.

About the College of American Pathologists
The College of American Pathologists is a not-for-profit medical society serving nearly 16,000 physician members and the laboratory community throughout the world. It is the world’s largest association composed exclusively of pathologists and is widely considered the leader in laboratory quality assurance. CAP is an advocate for high-quality and cost-effective patient care. More information about CAP can be found at http://www.cap.org.

Most Popular Now

New App may Help Caregivers of People Ge…

A new study by investigators from Mass General Brigham showed that a new app they created can help improve the quality of life for caregivers of patients undergoing bone marrow...

Philips Foundation 2024 Annual Report: E…

Marking its tenth anniversary, Philips Foundation released its 2024 Annual Report, highlighting a year in which the Philips Foundation helped provide access to quality healthcare for 46.5 million people around...

New AI Transforms Radiology with Speed, …

A first-of-its-kind generative AI system, developed in-house at Northwestern Medicine, is revolutionizing radiology - boosting productivity, identifying life-threatening conditions in milliseconds and offering a breakthrough solution to the global radiologist...

Scientists Argue for More FDA Oversight …

An agile, transparent, and ethics-driven oversight system is needed for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to balance innovation with patient safety when it comes to artificial intelligence-driven medical...

New Research Finds Specific Learning Str…

If data used to train artificial intelligence models for medical applications, such as hospitals across the Greater Toronto Area, differs from the real-world data, it could lead to patient harm...

Giving Doctors an AI-Powered Head Start …

Detection of melanoma and a range of other skin diseases will be faster and more accurate with a new artificial intelligence (AI) powered tool that analyses multiple imaging types simultaneously...

Patients say "Yes..ish" to the…

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to be integrated in healthcare, a new multinational study involving Aarhus University sheds light on how dental patients really feel about its growing role in...

AI Agents for Oncology

Clinical decision-making in oncology is challenging and requires the analysis of various data types - from medical imaging and genetic information to patient records and treatment guidelines. To effectively support...

'AI Scientist' Suggests Combin…

An 'AI scientist', working in collaboration with human scientists, has found that combinations of cheap and safe drugs - used to treat conditions such as high cholesterol and alcohol dependence...

Brains vs. Bytes: Study Compares Diagnos…

A University of Maine study compared how well artificial intelligence (AI) models and human clinicians handled complex or sensitive medical cases. The study published in the Journal of Health Organization...

Start-ups in the Spotlight at MEDICA 202…

17 - 20 November 2025, Düsseldorf, Germany. MEDICA, the leading international trade fair and platform for healthcare innovations, will once again confirm its position as the world's number one hotspot for...