SNOMED CT New Zealand Extension PRODUCTION Release Notes - October 2025

SNOMED CT New Zealand Extension PRODUCTION Release Notes - October 2025


Date

20251001

Document Version

1.0

Release Status

production

 

 

Introduction

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora works with health agencies and their industry partners to develop SNOMED CT® reference sets, maps, language reference sets and other content for digital health solutions in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The SNOMED CT New Zealand Extension packages these components for release every April and October, to be used with the latest designated SNOMED CT International Edition release.

The content can be downloaded from our member licensing and distribution service, viewed online using the SNOMED CT browser or accessed via a standard FHIR® API using the NZ Health Terminology Service

We welcome your feedback and participation. For more information about SNOMED CT implementation in New Zealand, email standards@hnz.govt.nz, visit our website or join the standards channel at ehealthforum.nz.

Background

This document summarises the content changes included in the October 2025 production release of the SNOMED NZ Extension package.

It also includes technical notes detailing any known issues.

This SNOMED NZ Extension package is dependent upon and should therefore be consumed in conjunction with the SNOMED CT International Edition August 2025 release.

New and updated content

The October 2025 release includes updates to the previously released content in the SNOMED NZ Extension and introduces some new content.

This release includes new content in the following areas.

ACC translation table map

The ACC translation table has been extended to further support automated processing of SNOMED coded injury claims for patients in public hospitals:

  • 36 concepts modified

  • 1382 mappings removed

  • 1299 new mappings created

Emergency care reference sets

The chief presenting complaint and diagnosis reference sets have been updated as a result of the latest six-monthly clinical reference group review in August 2025.

Use of these reference sets to code the chief presenting complaint and diagnosis data elements for all ED presentations and submit this data to NNPAC has been mandatory since NCAMP 2021.

NCAMP 2026 includes the latest versions of the reference sets to ensure that emergency departments across the country are updating their systems for optimal clinical experience.

Health service type reference set

This reference set has been updated to support work underway by HealthPoint in the mapping of SNOMED CT concepts into their website and FHIR-based APIs for services used by consumers, healthcare professionals and helplines.

Patient friendly terms in NZ English are included for all health service types alongside te reo Māori translations provided by Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori | Māori Language Commission.

NZ Breast Device Registry (NZBDR)

The set of SNOMED concepts developed for the New Zealand Breast Device Registry (NZBDR) | Te Rehita Taputapu Uma o Aotearoa has been extended to add the following body structure concepts relating to the placement of an implant within a breast structure.

SCTID

Fully Specified Name

Preferred Term

245526002

Structure of retromammary space (body structure)

Prepectoral space

599301000210109

Structure of retromammary space of left breast (body structure)

Prepectoral space of left breast

599291000210105

Structure of retromammary space of right breast (body structure)

Prepectoral space of right breast

599271000210106

Structure of sub-pectoral space of left breast (body structure)

Subpectoral space of left breast

599281000210108

Structure of sub-pectoral space of right breast (body structure)

Subpectoral space of right breast

599261000210100

Structure of sub-pectoral space (body structure)

Subpectoral space

NZ Radiology procedures reference set

The radiology procedures reference set has been updated to include the RANZCR (Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists) reference set and the NICIP (National Interim Clinical Imaging Procedure) code set from the UK National Health Service.

Ophthalmology concepts

A set of SNOMED concepts has been developed and promoted to the SNOMED International Edition to support data collection in ophthalmology services.

Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy Regimen Library

Further concepts representing systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT) regimens have been added to support the CanShare programme. Responsibility for management of this content has moved from the NZULM team to the the CanShare team at Te Aho o Te Kahu | Cancer Control Agency .

Other changes

18 reference sets have been updated to replace inactive concepts with active concepts.

CanShare reference sets

Te Aho o Te Kahu | Cancer Control Agency has developed a collection of 474 CanShare reference sets for Aotearoa. These reference sets provide standard sets of SNOMED CT concepts to use for recording, sharing and querying cancer data in Aotearoa. Each concept in these reference sets has a preferred term in the CanShare language reference set (SCTID 231621000210105), selected by New Zealand clinicians to standardise the way that cancer data is displayed. These reference sets are designed to support a range of cancer data, including key diagnostic components, treatment plans, national registers and screening programmes.

This release includes 16 new CanShare reference sets, 48 updated reference sets, 410 static reference sets and 334 new concepts to support the following areas:

  • Cancer streams, substreams and primary cancer types to support clinical workflows for medical oncology and haematology.

  • Topographies for recording the primary site of a cancer. This includes a maximal set of body sites, a high-level set of commonly used body sites, and body sites specific to breast, thoracic, gastrointestinal, female genital, genitourinary, soft tissue & bone, skin, head & neck, central nervous system, endocrine & neuroendocrine, and eye cancers.

  • Lymph nodes for recording a lymph node site (for pathology or surgery) for breast, thoracic, gastrointestinal, female genital, genitourinary, head & neck, and eye cancers.

  • Cancer histologies for haematologic, breast, thoracic, gastrointestinal, female genital, genitourinary, soft tissue & bone, skin, head & neck, central nervous system, endocrine & neuroendocrine, eye, and paediatric cancers, based on the WHO Classification of Tumours 5th edition.

  • Grading systems for haematology and solid cancers. 

  • Staging systems (AJCC and non AJCC) for haematology and solid cancers, including clinical, pathological, recurrence or retreatment, and post therapy or post neoadjuvant therapy staging.

  • Prognostic factors relevant to staging of solid cancers.

  • Prognostic scoring systems for haematology, female genital, and genitourinary cancers.

  • Neoadjuvant therapy response scoring systems for breast, colorectal, and female genital cancers.

  • Specimen collection procedures and specimens to support all cancer types.

  • Ancillary study tests and results for a wide range of cancers, to support testing eligibility for new cancer medicines, as well as breast and colorectal cancers.

  • Systemic anti-cancer therapy treatment plans to support regimen design.

  • Radiation oncology treatment plans and waitlist data.

  • Additional data to support national screening programmes (eg, National Cervical Screening Programme) and registers (eg, Breast Cancer Foundation National Register).

Release statistics

Concept and description statistics

Requests from the SNOMED NZ National Release Centre to SNOMED International have resulted in the promotion of 24 new concepts and 1 new description into the SNOMED International Edition since our April 2025 release.

Requests from the Sweden and Canada National Release Centres have resulted in 6 concepts being promoted from our extension into the SNOMED International Edition.

There are 443 new concepts and 2180 new descriptions in this release.

For a statistical breakdown of the content of the SNOMED NZ Edition and this release please visit release statistics site.

Reference sets

There are 716 reference sets in this release, including 16 new reference sets. 

Visit our website for more information about our reference sets.

You can access New Zealand reference sets without login by visiting SNOMED CT Reference Set Tool 2.0. Once there click on library in the top right-hand corner and then filter on New Zealand NRC in the organisation column to select a reference set. 

Deprecated and inactivated reference sets

31 reference sets have been removed from this release, and 169 reference sets have been inactivated pending full deprecation in the forthcoming April 2026 release.

Table 1.1 Deprecated reference sets (These reference sets have been removed from this release)

Reference set name

SCTID

New Zealand cancer soft tissue and bone topography reference set

398421000210104

New Zealand WHO classification of tumours (5th edition) haematolymphoid peripheral T-cell lymphoma histology reference set

297181000210101

New Zealand WHO classification of tumours (5th edition) haematolymphoid Epstein-Barr virus positive T-cell and natural killer cell lymphoiod proliferation histology reference set

394281000210109

New Zealand cancer follicular lymphoma grade reference set

294721000210105

New Zealand WHO classification of tumours (5th edition) malignant differentiation grade reference set

340991000210103

New Zealand WHO classification of tumours (5th edition) malignant low high grade reference set

341001000210104

New Zealand WHO classification of tumours (5th edition) neuroendocrine tumour grade reference set

332691000210107

New Zealand cancer Nottingham Combined breast grade reference set

253261000210100

New Zealand cancer urinary and male genital renal pelvis and ureter lymph node reference set

396191000210105

New Zealand cancer nuclear grade of DCIS grade reference set

253271000210106

New Zealand cancer FIGO 2009 endometrial carcinoma grade reference set

331811000210105

New Zealand WHO classification of tumours (5th edition) CNS tumour grade reference set

351521000210103

New Zealand cancer FIGO 2014 ovary and fallopian tube and primary peritoneal carcinoma stage reference set

331731000210108

New Zealand cancer FIGO 2023 corpus uteri carcinoma and carcinosarcoma stage reference set

331741000210100

New Zealand cancer FIGO 2009 endometrial carcinoma stage reference set

476781000210105

New Zealand cancer FIGO 2015 corpus uteri leiomyosarcoma and endometrial stromal sarcoma stage reference set

331751000210102

New Zealand cancer FIGO 2015 corpus uteri adenosarcoma stage reference set

331761000210104

New Zealand cancer FIGO 2001 gestational trophoblastic disease stage reference set

331771000210105

New Zealand cancer FIGO 2018 cervix uteri stage reference set

331781000210107

New Zealand cancer FIGO 2018 vagina stage reference set

331791000210109

New Zealand cancer FIGO 2021 vulva stage reference set

331801000210108

New Zealand cancer Ann Arbor lymphoma stage reference set

294731000210107

New Zealand cancer GHSG Hodgkin treatment stratification stage reference set

294741000210104

New Zealand cancer NK-cell and T-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma treatment stratification stage reference set

294751000210101

New Zealand cancer R-ISS for multiple myeloma stage reference set

294761000210103

New Zealand cancer Mayo staging for AL (amyloidosis) stage reference set

294771000210109

New Zealand cancer revised Mayo staging 2012 for AL (amyloidosis) stage reference set

294781000210106

New Zealand cancer Rai staging for CLL stage reference set

294791000210108

New Zealand cancer Binet staging for CLL stage reference set

294801000210107

New Zealand cancer revised TNM-B staging for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma stage reference set

294811000210109

New Zealand cancer Lugano staging classification for lymphoma reference set

380781000210106

Table 1.2 Inactivated reference sets (These reference sets have been inactivated and will be removed in the April 2026 release)

Reference set name

SCTID

New Zealand cancer genetic test reference set

447991000210106

New Zealand cancer gene cell reference set

466571000210109

New Zealand cancer HER2 expression reference set

253351000210105

New Zealand cancer HER2 expression by molecular test reference set

394241000210102

New Zealand cancer HER2 expression by immunohistochemistry reference set

395511000210104

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition gastrointestinal colon and rectum clinical T category reference set

332901000210109

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition haematology primary cutaneous B-cell or T-cell (non-MF/SS) lymphoma clinical T category reference set

253581000210105

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition haematology primary cutaneous B-cell or T-cell (non-MF/SS) lymphoma pathological T category reference set

253601000210102

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition haematology primary cutaneous B-cell or T-cell (non-MF/SS) lymphoma clinical N category reference set

253621000210105

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition haematology primary cutaneous B-cell or T-cell (non-MF/SS) lymphoma pathological N category reference set

253641000210104

New Zealand AJCC 9th edition female genital cervix uteri stage group reference set

331721000210106

New Zealand AJCC 9th edition female genital cervix uteri pathological N category reference set

331691000210103

New Zealand AJCC 9th edition female genital cervix uteri clinical N category reference set

331641000210107

New Zealand AJCC 9th edition female genital cervix uteri pathological T category reference set

331631000210104

New Zealand AJCC 9th edition female genital cervix uteri clinical T category reference set

331621000210101

New Zealand AJCC 9th edition female genital vulva stage group reference set

398951000210101

New Zealand AJCC 9th edition female genital vulva pathological N category reference set

398921000210105

New Zealand AJCC 9th edition female genital vulva clinical N category reference set

398911000210100

New Zealand AJCC 9th edition female genital vulva pathological T category reference set

398901000210102

New Zealand AJCC 9th edition female genital vulva clinical T category reference set

398891000210103

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition thoracic thymus clinical T category reference set

297341000210105

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition thoracic thymus pathological T category reference set

297371000210100

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition thoracic thymus stage group reference set

297311000210109

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition thoracic lung stage group reference set

297321000210104

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition thoracic malignant pleural mesothelioma clinical T category reference set

297361000210106

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition thoracic malignant pleural mesothelioma pathological T category reference set

297391000210101

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition thoracic malignant pleural mesothelioma stage group reference set

297331000210102

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition gastrointestinal stromal tumour clinical T category reference set

351141000210102

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition gastrointestinal stromal tumour pathological T category reference set

351151000210104

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition gastrointestinal stromal tumour gastric and omental stage group reference set

351241000210106

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition gastrointestinal stromal tumour small intestine and oesophageal and colon and rectum and mesenteric and peritoneal stage group reference set

351251000210109

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition breast clinical T category reference set

253491000210106

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition breast pathological T category reference set

253511000210104

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition breast clinical N category reference set

253531000210106

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition breast pathological N category reference set

253551000210100

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition breast stage group reference set

341021000210107

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition female genital vulva clinical T category reference set

331021000210108

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition female genital vulva pathological T category reference set

331151000210103

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition female genital vulva clinical N category reference set

331211000210109

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition female genital vulva pathological N category reference set

331331000210107

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition female genital vulva stage group reference set

330921000210102

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition female genital vagina clinical T category reference set

331011000210103

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition female genital vagina pathological T category reference set

331141000210101

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition female genital vagina clinical N category reference set

331201000210107

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition female genital vagina pathological N category reference set

331321000210105

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition female genital vagina stage group reference set

330911000210107

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition female genital cervix uteri clinical T category reference set

331001000210100

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition female genital cervix uteri pathological T category reference set

331131000210109

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition female genital cervix uteri clinical N category reference set

331191000210105

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition female genital cervix uteri pathological N category reference set

331311000210100

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition female genital cervix uteri stage group reference set

330901000210105

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition female genital corpus uteri carcinoma and carcinosarcoma clinical T category reference set

330961000210109

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition female genital corpus uteri carcinoma and carcinosarcoma pathological T category reference set

331091000210106

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition female genital corpus uteri carcinoma and carcinosarcoma clinical N category reference set

331161000210100

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition female genital corpus uteri carcinoma and carcinosarcoma pathological N category reference set

331281000210103

New Zealand cancer modified Ryan tumour regression score reference set

351481000210103

New Zealand cancer MD Anderson residual cancer burden class reference set

340921000210101

New Zealand cancer Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumours 1.1 reference set

399061000210107

New Zealand cancer Positron Emission Tomography Response Criteria in Solid Tumours 1.0 reference set

399051000210109

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition gastrointestinal colon and rectum pathological T category reference set

332911000210106

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition gastrointestinal colon and rectum clinical N category reference set

332921000210101

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition gastrointestinal colon and rectum pathological N category reference set

332931000210104

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition gastrointestinal colon and rectum clinical M category reference set

332941000210107

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition gastrointestinal colon and rectum pathological M category reference set

332951000210105

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition gastrointestinal colon and rectum stage group reference set

351231000210103

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition female genital gestational trophoblastic disease stage group reference set

330891000210109

New Zealand AJCC 8th edition residual tumour category reference set

330721000210100

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