2025 Early Visibility Release Notifications
This page provides information on planned changes to upcoming SNOMED International Release packages in three sections:
EARLY VISIBILITY OF PROPOSED CONTENT CHANGES (with provisional release date)
EARLY VISIBILITY OF PUBLISHED CHANGES (with confirmed release date)
INFORMATION ABOUT PROJECTS AND WORK IN PROGRESS
Please submit any feedback relating to the items below to info@snomed.org
PLEASE NOTE, YOU MAY HAVE TO REGISTER FOR A CONFLUENCE USER ACCOUNT IN ORDER TO ACCESS THE LINKS TO DOCUMENTS REFERENCED BELOW. |
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2025 Proposed Content Changes
Items | Hierarchy/Topic | EARLY VISIBILITY OF PROPOSED CONTENT CHANGES | Planned Release timing (*this is provisional only and is subject to change) |
|---|---|---|---|
1. | Content Improvement | Updates to the Inactivation Reason and Historical Association for 'On Examination' and 'Complaining of' Inactive Content Many of the 'on examination' and 'complaining of' concepts were previously inactivated with the inactivation reason of |Moved elsewhere| with a historical association value |Extension Namespace 1000000|. This content will be updated with an inactivation reason of |Non-conformance to editorial policy| and a historical association of |Alternative| to a suitable international concept. | Q1 2026 International Release |
2. | Clinical Finding | Inactivation of Complication Disorder Concepts (371 concepts) The inactivation of concepts that reference “complication” without specifying the nature of the complication is planned. The primitive “Complication (disorder)” grouper was inactivated in 2022 due to a lack of consistency or definition of what would properly be assigned as a subtype. The concepts will be inactivated with inactivation reason “Classification derived concept” and replacement by the parent concept. Access to briefing note is available on request info@snomed.org | Beginning June 2024 International Release and then subsequent releases until complete |
3. | Procedure | Review 1263452006 |Anesthesia and/or sedation procedure (procedure)| A review of the 1263452006 |Anesthesia and/or sedation procedure (procedure)| hierarchy is in progress, the focus is on:
| Content review - publication date to be determined |
4. | Procedure | Review 48537004 |Bypass graft (procedure)| A review of the 48537004 |Bypass graft (procedure)| hierarchy is in progress, the focus is on:
| Q2 2026 International Release |
5. | MRCM Change Update to Procedure Content | MRCM change to Surgical approach (attribute) - PLEASE SEE UPDATED TIMESCALES BELOW This change will be implemented in 4 phases:
| Phase 1 - February 2025 International Release - COMPLETE Phase 2 - April 2025 International Release - COMPLETE Phase 3 - Q2 2025 International Release - COMPLETE Phase 4 - Q1 2026 International Release |
6. | Descriptions Update | Forward slash in FSN A review has commenced of those concepts with a forward slash in their FSN. Editorial guidance exists disallowing the use of forward slashes in FSNs, and we have commenced a systematic review of those existing terms containing them. Many areas are excluded for example, medicinal products where strength /1 is the denominator, assessment scales, explicit "and/or", gene names, enzyme and other substance naming, organisms, ratios, per in units (or future consideration), intervertebral structures, content added with an Orphanet map and others. The review is ongoing. If the meaning is clear i.e. single meaning there is no change but groupers, disjoint ('or)' terming and ambiguous terms will be reviewed and possibly inactivated or have a new replacement FSN without a forward slash. Subject matter experts are being consulted as part of this work. | 2025 International Release |
7. | Procedure | Review of 129376004 |Construction - action (qualifier value)| 129376004 |Construction - action (qualifier value)| is a subtype of 257903006 |Repair - action (qualifier value) and sibling of 129377008 |Reconstruction - action (qualifier value)|. Because some concepts modeled with 129376004 |Construction - action (qualifier value)| as target value concept for 260686004 |Method (attribute)| may not be considered a reparative procedure, a review of the 129376004 |Construction - action (qualifier value) and 410614008 |Construction (procedure)| hierarchies is being undertaken. Expected outcomes may be the classification of 129376004 |Construction - action (qualifier value)| directly under 129284003 |Surgical action (qualifier value)| and the creation of new actions that better define the differences between reparative and construction procedures. | Q2 2026 International Release |
8. | Association Relationships File | Additional Relationships The new "additional relationships" take the same form as the inferred relationships and can be stored in the same format in the RF2 package. Modeling Advisory Group (MAG) recommends that extensions can use the existing relationship files or create new relationship files for them. By default, there is a single file for each component (1 concept file, 1 relationships file, 1 simple refset file, etc.). Edition and extension publishers can decide to split the content of any of those files for business reasons while following the naming convention. The new attributes should be placed under 1295449009 |Additional relationship attribute (attribute)|. The concept 900000000000227009 |Additional relationship (core metadata concept)| should be assigned to characteristicTypeId in the relationship files. | To be determined - 2026 International Release |
9. | Description Update | Inactivation and Replacement of Concepts Using "Arm" and "Leg" in the FSN Concepts that use "arm" or "leg" without qualification are ambiguous, as the anatomical site may be misinterpreted. Work has commenced on updating Disorder content. Following this, Finding and Procedure content will be managed as resourcing permits. | 2025 International Releases |