SNOMED clinical terms: overview of the development process and project status

Two large health care reference terminologies, SNOMED RT and Clinical Terms Version 3 , are in the process of being merged to form a comprehensive new work referred to as SNOMED Clinical Terms. The College of American Pathologists and the United Kingdom s National Health Service have entered into a collaborative agreement to develop this new work. Both organizations have extensive terminology development and maintenance experience. This paper discusses the process and status of SNOMED CT development and how the resources and expertise of both organizations are being used to develop this new terminological resource. The preliminary results of the merger process, including mapping, the merger of upper levels of each hierarchy, and attribute harmonization are also discussed.