Clinical terminology SNOMED CT: experiences from the implementation of a terminology standard in the Swedish region of Västra Götaland

The Västra Götaland region is the first region to implement the Snomed CT standard in Sweden to standardise the clinical terminology within the region. This happens at the same time as the region undergoes a huge undertaking to implement a new medical record system – Millennium, that only partially supports the Snomed CT standard. Which imposes challenges when the region wants to utilise the standard to create a decision support system to provide individual-based diagnosis and treatment. This is a portrayal of the initial phase of the implementation of the Snomed CT on what challenges and lessons the region has acquired in the implementation of clinical terminology standards aimed to achieve seamless reuse of patient and healthcare information in the region.

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Implementation of SNOMED CT clinical ontology within the Swedish healthcare sector from a Covid-19 perspective

The National Board of Health and Welfare (NBHW) in Sweden has been working with the Snomed CT standard since the mid-2000s, to enable seamless national exchange of information within the healthcare sector. The Covid-19 pandemic has showed how much work that remains to implement seamless exchange of information between regions and authorities in Sweden. We have talked to the NBHW about challenges and lessons learned about implementing semantic interoperability.

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