What is SNOMED CT?

SNOMED CT is a standardised health care vocabulary, which we use in the UKCRC Tissue Directory.

Much of the work we undertook originally was based on the data standard of the Confederation of Cancer Biobanks (CCB). However, the CCB data standard as drafted did not define the terms to be used and so we turned to SNOMED CT.

Our decision to use SNOMED CT was linked heavily to the decision to use it in all health care environments within the UK. The hope is that by adopting SNOMED CT, and by building it into our systems (and therefore into how sample resources describe themselves), we will help sample resources be prepared for handling SNOMED CT terms from other healthcare systems.

The UK holds a license for SNOMED CT via the Health and Social Care Information Centre. More details about obtaining a copy of SNOMED CT are available.