Published: April 2023

Value Set Management Tool developers explore the NHS England Terminology Server 

We have recently reached the end of our Discovery Phase in the Value Set Management Tool project, where we spoke to potential users about the difficulties experienced when dealing with value sets. We would like to issue thanks to all who made time to talk to us as your insights and perspectives have been really beneficial.

We’ve also been busy looking at the technical implementation related challenges of holding SNOMED CT value sets. To help with this, we took delivery of our own “development” FHIR Terminology Server, which is based on the same technology and resources as the NHS England Terminology Server. Utilising this technology introduces many of the advantages reported by users of the NHS England Terminology Server, namely that the server is kept up to date with terminology releases, eradicating the need to download and process Release Format 2 (RF2) packs from TRUD.

In addition, a FHIR Terminology Server not only provides excellent access to terminologies such as SNOMED CT, but also provides a standard way of storing and manipulating value sets. By building our own solution around FHIR, we can ensure the very best opportunities to share carefully crafted SNOMED CT value sets across the widest possible range of IT healthcare systems.

Access to our own development server has allowed us to start testing out ideas for how the Value Set Management Tool can use the underlying power of FHIR, to transparently provide users with the experience they need, and furthermore improve their ability to discover, create and maintain value sets.

Get involved

If you’d like to get involved with the Value Set Management Tool project, please get in touch. 

Learn more about Terminology Server 

Contact snomed.implementation@nhs.net to talk to us about how the NHS England Terminology Server could work for you. 

Published: April 2023

The SNOMED implementation team has been busy speaking to some of the most prolific users of the NHS England Terminology Server. The three organisations involved shared their experiences of using the Terminology Server, including details of their preparation and the processes followed to implement the service, the advantages of accessing SNOMED CT, dm+d and other terminology and classifications products via this route, and any obstacles they encountered along the way.

Overall feedback was very positive. Some of the benefits cited included:

• improvements in speed compared with accessing SNOMED directly via the Release Format 2 (RF2) files downloaded from the TRUD website
• financial savings compared with accessing SNOMED directly via the RF2 files
• more efficient processes over loading RF2 files into systems (“You’re doing all the hard work!”)

All of the organisations also praised the ease of initial registration and synchronisation with the Terminology Server, thanks to clear processes provided by the NHS England Terminology Server quick start guides and support from NHS England technical colleagues.  One of our interviewees stated:

“Thank you very much for the Terminology Server. It’s massively improved things. It’s a pleasure to work with.” 

Of course, implementing new working methods comes with challenges, and the need to upskill and familiarise teams with the technology was a common theme raised during our sessions.

Some interviewees also told us they did not have prior awareness of the NHS England Terminology Server and had struggled with using the RF2 files to access SNOMED and dm+d before discovering the solution. The SNOMED Implementation team aims to increase promotion of the NHS England Terminology Server in the near future by highlighting the fantastic work it makes possible. Look out for more in-depth case studies with our interviewees soon!

We are always looking to add to our suite of benefits artefacts. If you would like to share your stories about the advantages of SNOMED CT and / or the NHS England Terminology Server, we would love to hear from you; please email us on snomed.implementation@nhs.net.

Published: April 2023

We are pleased to announce that we have now added inclusion of history ConceptMaps as part of the dm+d content and OPCS-4.10, Classification of Interventions and Procedures to the NHS England Terminology Server.

Further information on dm+d historic code data is available in the dm+d History Data File Guide and dm+d code system structure guide.

If you are interested in using the NHS England Terminology Server, visit our webpage or email snomed.implementation@nhs.net to learn more about what the Terminology Server can offer for you.

 Published: March 2023

On 14 February, Jordan and Emily from the SNOMED Implementation Team spoke to Disability Paediatrician, Dr. Karen Horridge about her continued work on reference set development using SNOMED CT, including the associated challenges and benefits.

Dr. Horridge, and her colleagues previously worked on a paediatric disabilities reference set, designed to enable consistent recording of patient needs and to allow comparison between appointments. Find out more about the original project by reading this case study.

Dr. Horridge’s team are now working on a new version of the reference set to expand into more general paediatric care and improve outcomes and data for a wider range of patients.

Once the project is complete, the SNOMED Implementation team hope to create a new case study relating to this important work – it should make for a very interesting read!

Published: February 2023

The SNOMED Implementation team have produced an overview describing the SNOMED CT Monolith Edition release format.  The document describes what the Monolith Edition is, how it differs from other Editions of the SNOMED CT UK release and the potential use cases for it.  You can find a copy of the SNOMED CT Monolith Edition Overview in our Technical Resources area.

Kind regards,

Terminology and Classifications Delivery Service

Published: January 2023

On 12 December 2022, the management of the NHS England Terminology Server  transitioned to sit underneath the SNOMED Implementation Team as part of their service offering.

The transition has given the team an opportunity to embrace and advertise the service, encouraging vendors, healthcare organisations, researchers and other stakeholders to adopt terminology products and services such as SNOMED CT, dm+d and clinical classifications, including ICD-10 and OPCS-4.

The NHS Digital website, provides all you need to know about the server, including  a training hub; designed to support you through your Terminology Server journey.

Queries relating to the server can be sent to the SNOMED Implementation Team.

Published: January 2023

Dedalus, supplier of the Terminology Server hosted a two-day event at their Leeds Innovation Centre, in October 2022. This included speakers from NHS England and Oxford University and progress updates were given from implementers in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

The Dedalus technical team offered breakout sessions for those keen to learn more about the Terminology Server, demonstrating system capabilities which highlighted some of the advantages of using the service. This provided an opportunity for colleagues to meet face-to-face, network and speak to those willing to share and learn from their experiences in using SNOMED CT.

Published: January 2023

At the awayday, Pete Turnbull, Head of Standards Implementation at NHS England, shared exciting news about a new Value Set Management Tool project. The new collaborative tool would be used to create value sets of SNOMED CT content.

Pete said: "Using SNOMED CT can be daunting, especially if users are given unrestricted access to the whole of the SNOMED CT dictionary. Errors can be made easily, and users navigating SNOMED CT without training often choose incorrect concepts that aren’t what they appear to be.

We’ve worked with 100’s of different users who try to build the sets of SNOMED CT concepts they need. We teach them how to use SNOMED CT more effectively and accurately, and how to avoid these common errors, but wouldn’t it be better if this teaching wasn’t required?

What if we could take the skills needed to safely navigate SNOMED CT out of people’s heads, and instead put them into an intelligent nationally available tool? What if there was a platform anyone could access where they could find existing sets of codes already in use, or create the sets of SNOMED CT concepts they need, in a safe guided environment? What if the tool automatically identified and corrected errors as sets were built, and automatically kept sets updated as new versions of SNOMED CT were released?

This is precisely what we are going to build.

We are also aware that creating and maintaining value sets is only one of several common issues faced by SNOMED CT users. We are keen to make this the first of several tools that provide ‘out of the box’ solutions to these challenges; however, to do that we need your help."

The project team are delivering  a user-centred approach and have been liaising with a range of stakeholder groups over the last few months. Visit the Value Set Management Tool project page, to learn more.

Published: January 2023

Over time, the SNOMED Implementation Team have developed case studies documenting real-life use cases of SNOMED CT adoption which have resulted in organisations seeing the value that can be added, post implementation. 

More recently, we have focussed on the use of the NHS England Terminology Server and have updated our SNOMED CT Case Studies library to make it easier to identify the benefits of SNOMED CT implementation.

We are in the process of developing resources to enable organisations to share their experience of what SNOMED CT adoption looks like in the NHS.  Our aim is to provide insight to peers for their own implementation projects, highlighting the real-world experiences and benefits of using SNOMED CT in the health and care sector. 

To help us develop our resources, we are keen to speak to anyone who has:

• news to share in relation to their experience of within with SNOMED CT
• experience in using the NHS England Terminology Server
• identified any increased or additional benefits from their use of SNOMED CT within their organisation

If the above applies to you and you would like to share your experience, please register your interest via email to snomed.implementation@nhs.net.

Published: January 2023

As you may know, plans to merge NHS Digital with NHS England accelerated to January 2023 to support the ‘Our plan for patients’ initiative from the Department of Health and Social Care.

The transfer between organisations will not affect the support that we currently offer and our contact details and SNOMED Implementation mailbox will remain the same for those who need to get in touch. 

We will keep you updated as things progress.