HL7 licensed to use world’s most comprehensive healthcare terminology product

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 15 (Bernama) – SNOMED International and Health Level Seven International (HL7) have officially declared a licence agreement for ‘Free for Use’ Set of SNOMED CT coded concepts for use within the HL7 International Patient Summary (IPS).

The United Kingdom-based SNOMED International is a non-profit organisation which owns and develops SNOMED CT, the world's most comprehensive healthcare terminology product.

IPS document is an electronic health record extract containing essential healthcare information for use in the unscheduled, cross-border care scenario, as well as for local, regional and other care scenarios.

The SNOMED CT-IPS Free Set comprises over 8,000 terms for use in implementation of the HL7 CDA R2 and FHIR IPS Implementation guides word-wide.

Organisations, information systems or mHealth apps creating or receiving an HL7 IPS, may or may not have a SNOMED licence.

For licensed organisations, regions or countries, the SNOMED CT free set enables easier specification of the patient summary requirements and better interoperability.

Meanwhile, for those who are not licensed, the free set only enables them to use the data for care and to store within their EHRs. For some, it may provide a starting point to migrate to SNOMED CT.

The agreement spans five years during which updates to SNOMED CT content will be made in line with SNOMED International’s release schedule.

More information on the HL7 IPS can be obtained on http://international-patient-summary.net/mediawiki/index.php and for details on SNOMED CT IPS Free Set, visit www.snomed.org

-- BERNAMA