National Release Centre for SNOMED CT Ireland meet International Team

Introduction

On the 11th July 2022 the National Release Centre for SNOMED CT invited persons with a specific role in managing healthcare, clinicians and the digital health agenda in Ireland to meet the international team to gain an understanding of SNOMED and its role in healthcare data, healthcare management and healthcare analytics.

The SNOMED International team were having their annual conference in Dublin and this was a unique opportunity to meet with them.

The Irish NRC had secured a slot with them for a meeting to be followed by lunch and informal discussions. The meeting was a hybrid model, with attendees both virtual and in person.

SNOMED CT is a clinical terminology that has been endorsed by HIQA and the Department of Health, it is to be used as the reference terminology in all Electronic Health Records in Ireland.  As more and more information systems are being procured, this meeting was aimed to help gain an understanding of peoples role in ensuring that SNOMED is adopted in Ireland. The aim of the meeting was also a knowledge sharing opportunity with people working in the in digital health space to ensure that impactful use of SNOMED CT, that is used correctly, to improve data standardisation, to make better clinical decisions and to enable better data insights, that impacts patients and their care.

Summary of meeting:

The meeting began with introductions of onsite attendee’s,

The meeting commenced with Niall Sinnott, DOH, presenting an overview of the Irish Health systems current digital health status and our journey so far; followed up with an overview of the International Caries Classification and Management System ICCMS (Community) proposal.

Followed by an interesting presentation by Kevin O’Carroll HIQA, on Interoperability standards in eHealth.

Kevin’s talk was followed by Theresa Barry, (SNOMED CT NRC Lead), with a presentation on work the Irish SNOMED NRC are doing and an overview of the current status of SNOMED in Ireland; with the particular projects they are working on currently discussed and what she predicts for future in SNOMED CT, also discussed was what good and bad data would look like.

The last presenter was Don Sweete, CEO SNOMED CT from Canada, he introduced himself, and picking up on previous mentioned obstacles discussed by presenters, he explained what has been successful in Canada, the Canadian Health Infoway, (1st system for all), where 50% of finance is not given to vendor until the systems are up and running and the project is signed off. He also discussed their journey in SNOMED CT, the obstacles they encountered and how they overcame them.  He also gave suggestions to us in Ireland of where we could develop our eHealth system.  Also discussed the back mapping tool, (To code to SNOMED old coded data).

Conclusion:

The meeting was a successful networking opportunity with like-minded people with an interest in the digital health space in Ireland and how we all shared the goal of interoperability and standardisation of data. It was a good opportunity to hear how another country has adopted SNOMED CT successfully and how it has improved their Healthcare System for the benefit of the end user, Clinicians and patients.

Back Row: Shelly Lipon, Peter Connolly, Yvonne Coughlan, Niall Sinnott, Don Sweete, Ian Green

Front Row: Theresa Barry, Loretto Grogan, Sarah Craig, Emer O'Shea, Anita Flynn, Dr. Conor O'Shea

Contact Details:

Theresa Barry, Clinical Terminology Architecture Lead

email: theresa.barry@hse.ie