Introduction to E-Learning Pathway for Developers

1. Background

Welcome to SNOMED CT for Developers! We hope you enjoy following this learning pathway and learning about how to leverage the capabilities of SNOMED CT in your software applications!

When implemented in a well designed software application, SNOMED CT can be used to represent clinically relevant information consistently, reliably and comprehensively. There are many reasons to use SNOMED CT when developing clinical software applications, including: 

• SNOMED CT represents clinical semantics in a computable form which can be leveraged in your software application.
• SNOMED CT supports synonyms and dialect-specific descriptions which in turn support multi-lingual user interfaces and customization.
• SNOMED CT is distributed in tab-delimited files that can be loaded into any data store. This provides a wide range of technology options.
• SNOMED CT is regularly updated and has comprehensive versioning of each terminology component.
• SNOMED CT enables meaning-based data analytics using formal description logic definitions of clinical concepts.

The features of SNOMED CT enable applications to be developed with:

• Improved user interface design,
• Data that is captured in a human readable form and then stored in a computable form,
• Point of care services, such as clinical decision support,
• Common code system for integrating and sharing data, and
• Data analytics features which facilitate population health management and clinical research.