COPENHAGEN – The International Health Terminology Standards Development Organization (IHTSDO) has announced a new policy that allows free use of English-language SNOMED CT terms and identifiers in international research databases.

SNOMED CT will be the standard vocabulary for key data elements and value sets in international resources that receive input from and are used in IHTSDO Member and non-Member countries. The complete international release of SNOWMED CT includes translations and hierarchical, definitional and mapping relationships and requires an IHTSDO Affiliate License to access. The license is free for IHTSDO member countries, for countries designated as low-income by the World Bank and for approved research projects. Fees apply for regular use in other countries.

“Based on this general decision we expect more requests in the near future for similar use as a public good of SNOMED CT,” said Jan-Eric Slot, CEO of IHTSDO.

The U.S. National Library of Medicine’s National Center for Biotechnology Information is developing new international databases using SNOMED CT, making the organization one of the first to benefit from the new policy.

“Use of SNOMED CT in biomedical research should aid in the translation of research results into practice,” said Betsy Humphreys, Deputy Director of the National Library of Medicine. “Unambiguous links between electronic health records and information on genetic tests or genetic variations relevant to patient conditions will be increasingly important in individual patient care.”