What are the benefits of using SNOMED CT?
SNOMED CT provides a standardized, core terminology for electronic health records (EHRs). It contains more than 311,000 active concepts organized into several hierarchies. When implemented in software, SNOMED CT represents clinically relevant information consistently, reliably, and comprehensively as an integral part of the EHR. A clinical terminology can aid in providing health professionals with more easily accessible and complete information regarding medical history, illnesses, treatments, laboratory results, and similar facts. Standardized information can facilitate improved patient outcomes, clinical decision support, follow-up, and treatment. It can also facilitate analyses based on coded information from IT systems. SNOMED CT serves as a foundation upon which health care organizations can develop effective analysis applications to conduct outcomes research, evaluate the quality and cost of care, design effective treatment guidelines, and much more.
