SNOMED CT terminology service

Our new SNOMED CT terminology service is part of the New Zealand Health Terminology Service we are building. We provide the terminology service as a free public good to New Zealand health software developers to demonstrate this technology.

Under our interoperability roadmap, we will also be introducing terminology services for the New Zealand Pathology Observation Code Sets (NZPOCS) and our other standard code sets.  

The service is available on the internet via a standard FHIR^(R) application programming interface (API) at https://snomednz.digital.health.nz/fhir.

The NZ Formulary team is building a FHIR API for access to the NZ Universal List of Medicines and NZ Formulary content.

Using the terminology service

SNOMED International's Snowstorm terminology server is the software used. See the Snowstorm GitHub repository for instructions on using the API.

Here are some examples of its use.

Look up a clinical finding concept	https://snomednz.digital.health.nz/fhir/CodeSystem/$lookup?system=http://snomed.info/sct&code=404684003
Look up a procedure concept	https://snomednz.digital.health.nz/fhir/CodeSystem/$lookup?system=http://snomed.info/sct&code=427623005
Lookup of medicinal product, including some properties	https://snomednz.digital.health.nz/fhir/CodeSystem/$lookup?system=http://snomed.info/sct&code=322236009&property=normalForm&property=sufficientlyDefined
Check if one concept subsumes another	https://snomednz.digital.health.nz/fhir/CodeSystem/$subsumes?system=http://snomed.info/sct&codeA=50043002&codeB=195967001
Check if one concept is subsumed by another	https://snomednz.digital.health.nz/fhir/CodeSystem/$subsumes?system=http://snomed.info/sct&codeA=195967001&codeB=50043002
Expand an intensionally defined value set using expression constraint language (ECL)	https://snomednz.digital.health.nz/fhir/ValueSet/$expand?url=http://snomed.info/sct?fhir_vs=ecl/<<27624003&count=20
Respiratory disorders due to allergic reaction caused by pollen (ECL)	https://snomednz.digital.health.nz/fhir/ValueSet/$expand?url=http://snomed.info/sct?fhir_vs=ecl/< 50043002 |Disorder of respiratory system (disorder)| : << 42752001 |Due to (attribute)| = << 418364006 |Allergic reaction caused by pollen (disorder)|
Medicinal products containing caffeine	https://snomednz.digital.health.nz/fhir/ValueSet/$expand?url=http://snomed.info/sct?fhir_vs=ecl/< 763158003 |Medicinal product (product)| : << 127489000 |Has active ingredient (attribute)| = << 255641001 |Caffeine (substance)|
Expand an intensionally defined value set using the is-a relationship	https://snomednz.digital.health.nz/fhir/ValueSet/$expand?url=http://snomed.info/sct?fhir_vs=isa/27624003&count=20
Filter an ECL value set on a clinical term	https://snomednz.digital.health.nz/fhir/ValueSet/$expand?url=http://snomed.info/sct?fhir_vs=ecl/<< 763158003&filter=aspirin
Validate a code against an implicit value set, also checking the display term	https://snomednz.digital.health.nz/fhir/ValueSet/$validate-code?url=http://snomed.info/sct?fhir_vs=ecl/<< 34014006&code=840539006&display=COVID-19
List all SNOMED concepts mapped to ICD-O	https://snomednz.digital.health.nz/fhir/ValueSet/$expand?url=http://snomed.info/sct?fhir_vs=ecl/^446608001&count=20
List all New Zealand simple reference sets	https://snomednz.digital.health.nz/MAIN/SNOMEDCT-NZ/concepts?ecl=< 50501000210100
List the emergency department chief presenting complaint refset	https://snomednz.digital.health.nz/fhir/ValueSet/$expand?url=http://snomed.info/sct/21000210109?fhir_vs=refset/71000210108&count=10
List the emergency department diagnosis refset	https://snomednz.digital.health.nz/fhir/ValueSet/$expand?url=http://snomed.info/sct/21000210109?fhir_vs=refset/61000210102&count=10
List the emergency department procedure refset	https://snomednz.digital.health.nz/fhir/ValueSet/$expand?url=http://snomed.info/sct/21000210109?fhir_vs=refset/321000210102&count=10
List the smoking status refset	https://snomednz.digital.health.nz/fhir/ValueSet/$expand?url=http://snomed.info/sct/21000210109?fhir_vs=refset/72741000210106
List the smoking intervention refset	https://snomednz.digital.health.nz/fhir/ValueSet/$expand?url=http://snomed.info/sct/21000210109?fhir_vs=refset/72731000210103
List the vaping status refset	https://snomednz.digital.health.nz/fhir/ValueSet/$expand?url=http://snomed.info/sct/21000210109?fhir_vs=refset/72721000210100

Terms of use

The terminology service is provided for demonstration purposes only to help developers learn how to use a terminology service in health software.

The service is available and supported during daytime business hours on a best efforts basis. 

The service is supported by the standards team at Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand.

Contact us

Email us at [email protected] for more information