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

AI Catches One-Third of Interval Breast …

An AI algorithm for breast cancer screening has potential to enhance the performance of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT), reducing interval cancers by up to one-third, according to a study published...

AI also Assesses Dutch Mammograms Better…

AI is detecting tumors more often and earlier in the Dutch breast cancer screening program. Those tumors can then be treated at an earlier stage. This has been demonstrated by...

RSNA AI Challenge Models can Independent…

Algorithms submitted for an AI Challenge hosted by the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) have shown excellent performance for detecting breast cancers on mammography images, increasing screening sensitivity while...

AI could Help Emergency Rooms Predict Ad…

Artificial intelligence (AI) can help emergency department (ED) teams better anticipate which patients will need hospital admission, hours earlier than is currently possible, according to a multi-hospital study by the...

Head-to-Head Against AI, Pharmacy Studen…

Students pursuing a Doctor of Pharmacy degree routinely take - and pass - rigorous exams to prove competency in several areas. Can ChatGPT accurately answer the same questions? A new...

NHS Active 10 Walking Tracker Users are …

Users of the NHS Active 10 app, designed to encourage people to become more active, immediately increased their amount of brisk and non-brisk walking upon using the app, according to...

New AI Tool Illuminates "Dark Side…

Proteins sustain life as we know it, serving many important structural and functional roles throughout the body. But these large molecules have cast a long shadow over a smaller subclass...

The Human Touch of Doctors will Still be…

AI-based medicine will revolutionise care including for Alzheimer’s and diabetes, predicts a technology expert, but it must be accessible to all patients. Healing with Artificial Intelligence, written by technology expert Daniele...

Deep Learning-Based Model Enables Fast a…

Stroke is the second leading cause of death globally. Ischemic stroke, strongly linked to atherosclerotic plaques, requires accurate plaque and vessel wall segmentation and quantification for definitive diagnosis. However, conventional...

Brain Imaging may Identify Patients Like…

By understanding differences in how people’s brains are wired, clinicians may be able to predict who would benefit from a self-guided anxiety care app, according to a new analysis from...

Stepping for Digital Rewards

Walking is well known to have significant health benefits, but few people achieve the daily recommended steps. Fortunately, mobile health (mHealth) applications have emerged as promising tools to promote physical...