Week 4

E. OLATERU WEEK 4 DISCUSSION - SNOMED CT Standard: SNOMED CT

What the standard is:

SNOMED CT is a code used to represent medical encounter in patient diagnosis (HealthIT.gov, n.d.). It is an all-inclusive health terminology used all over the world. It basically serves as a medium for “electronic exchange of clinical health information” (Overview of SNOMED CT, 2016). It is also used in conjunction with ICD-9 and ICD-10 to promote “semantic interoperability” (Overview of SNOMED CT, 2016).

What the standard is used for:

During the interchange of medical information, there is a need to keep medical semantics consistent among different health care providers or different clinical researchers in different settings. SNOMED CT ensures that information is kept consistent. For example a stroke, cardiovascular accident, or heart attack, myocardial infarction may mean the same thing to doctors but to a computer, they are all different. SNOMED CT ensures that this information is consistent amongst the providers. Other uses of SNOMED CT is as follows:

1. Health information can be shared consistently within and across healthcare settings.

ii. Data can be organized, queried, and analyzed for the benefit of the individual and institution.

7/10/20, 5:03 PM Page 1 of 3

iii. The risk of different interpretations of the record between different healthcare settings can be reduced.

iv. Can remove language barriers as it enables multilingual use. v. Updated twice a year to help users keep pace with the advances

of healthcare terminology and add to the scope of coverage (Overview of SNOMED CT, 2016).

Why it is important:

SNOMED CT is very important in electronics health records in the following ways:

1. Maintain an up-to-date problem list of current and active diagnoses

ii. Record patient family health history as structure data iii. Identify and report cancer cases to state cancer registries iv. Record and track changes in patient vital signs v. Record patient smoking status vi. Provide a summary record for each transition of care (Overview of

SNOMED CT, 2016).

SNOMED CT has been adopted in many healthcare settings such as Medicare, Medicaid, data entry, and transition of care between nursing homes and various healthcare organizations.

References

HealthIT.gov. (n.d.). Representing patient medical encounter diagnosis | Interoperability standards advisory (ISA). Retrieved from https://www.healthit.gov/isa/representing-patient-medical-encounter- diagnosis

7/10/20, 5:03 PM Page 2 of 3

Overview of SNOMED CT. (2016, October 14). Overview of SNOMED CT. Retrieved from https://www.nlm.nih.gov/healthit/snomedct/snomed_overview.html

7/10/20, 5:03 PM Page 3 of 3