SNOMED CT Managed Service - Belgium Extension Release Notes - June 2026
Date | 20260615 |
Document Version | 1.0 |
Release Status | production |
Release Dependency | June 2026 International Edition |
Table Of Contents
Introduction
SNOMED CT terminology provides a common language that enables a consistent way of indexing, storing, retrieving, and aggregating clinical data across specialties and sites of care.
The International Health Terminology Standards Development organization (IHTSDO®), trading as SNOMED International, maintains the SNOMED CT technical design, the content architecture, the SNOMED CT content (includes the concepts table, the descriptions table, the relationships table, a history table, and ICD mappings), and related technical documentation.
We kindly encourage all Belgian users to submit their feedback on the content of the Belgian Edition through the new Request Management Portal (see Technical Notes below for more details).
This document provides a summarized description of the content changes included in the June 2026 Production release of the SNOMED Clinical Terms® Managed Service Belgium Edition package. It also includes technical notes detailing the potential known issues.
Content Changes Summary
This extension contains concepts, relationships and reference sets with Dutch, French and German translations.
New and Updated Content
International content in this release
This release contains 831 new and 230 inactivated concepts from the latest international edition.
Belgian content in this release
7 new Belgian concepts were created in this release.
New translated content
National Language Reference Sets:
New translations have been introduced to the national language reference sets, both for concepts that had not been yet translated and for concepts that already contained translations. Some existing translations were inactivated or updated. The following table contains the total number of currently active translations for active concepts available in the current release of the three Belgian language reference sets.
Please note that as of the March 2026 release, the figures below report active descriptions only within active concepts, and no longer include active descriptions within inactive concepts. Valid descriptions of inactive concepts remain active for legacy purposes.
NEW: A new import protocol for German translations from the SNOMED CT Germany edition has been developed and implemented by the Belgian NRC.
Starting this June 2026 release, the German translations published by the German NRC with their semi-annual May and November editions will be imported and published in the Belgian edition the following month, i.e. with our June and December editions. All feedback related to German content can be addressed to us via our feedback channels (see Content requests and submissions below). These translations are imported without changes except for the fact that they receive a new SNOMED CT Belgium ID.
| FRENCH | DUTCH | GERMAN |
Preferred | 285,481 | 304,429 | 118,738 |
Acceptable | 184,471 | 327,621 | 79,069 |
Total | 469,952 | 633,050 | 197,807 |
General Practitioner language reference sets: the following table contains the total number of translations included in the two Belgian GP language reference set.
| FRENCH | DUTCH |
Preferred | 10,387 | 11,279 |
Acceptable | 4,948 | 5,929 |
Total | 15,335 | 17,208 |
Other improvements
Significant work has been carried out in the past months to resolve legacy French duplicate terms within the same top-level hierarchy. 456 concepts concerned (out of 520 initially detected) have been disambiguated and therefore resolved. The remainder of these cases is still under study since its resolution depends on the outcome of terminological discussions within the Translation User Group (e.g., the issue of lesion vs. injury) and /or of clarification requests submitted to SNOMED International.
It is worth noting that since 2025, systematic checks are performed on any new uploaded content to prevent further inclusion of duplicate terms within one top-level hierarchy.
SNOMED CT derived products
Reference sets
The release currently contains reference sets of two types:
- Reference sets to support the implementation of SNOMED CT in electronic health record (eHR) software for clinical data entry and capture. These reference sets have a six-monthly release cycle, with updates due in May in November, in case of changes.
- Reference sets to support data interoperability (mainly subsets representing value sets stemming from Belgian FHIR profiles and represented in implementation guides). These reference sets have a monthly release cycle, in case of changes.
Please note that reference sets will not be republished unless there are changes compared to the previous version.
Updated Reference sets
The following reference sets were updated (inactive concepts were removed and replacements added if not already present OR members were added or removed):
211201000172100 |Belgian Transversal FHIR HL7 subset for Body Topography (foundation metadata concept)|
211411000172101 |Belgian Transversal FHIR HL7 subset for Body Location (foundation metadata concept)|
Overview of our reference sets
Purpose | Subset | SCTID | Content |
Clinical data entry | Belgian subset for medical problems in patient health records (foundation metadata concept) | 40811000172108 | Common disorders, findings and procedures found in general patient records. |
Clinical data entry | Belgian subset for nursing in patient health records (foundation metadata concept) | 100941000172101 | Common disorders, findings and procedures registered by nurses. |
Clinical data entry | Belgian subset for neonatology in patient health records (foundation metadata concept) | 100971000172106 | Common disorders and findings found in newborns. |
Clinical data entry | Belgian subset for pulmonology in patient health records (foundation metadata concept) | 100961000172102 | Common respiratory disorders and findings. |
Clinical data entry | Belgian subset for rheumatology in patient health records (foundation metadata concept) | 100981000172109 | Common rheumatic disorders and findings. |
Clinical data entry | Belgian subset for nephrology in patient health records (foundation metadata concept) | 100951000172104 | Common kidney-related disorders and findings. |
Clinical data entry | Belgian subset for cardiology in patient health records (foundation metadata concept) | 131001000172104 | Common cardiovascular disorders and findings. |
Clinical data entry | Belgian subset for hematology in patient health records (foundation metadata concept) | 130991000172100 | Common blood disorders and symptoms. |
Clinical data entry | Belgian subset for infectious diseases in patient health records (foundation metadata concept) | 130981000172103 | Common infectious diseases caused by different pathogens. |
Clinical data entry | Belgian subset for intensive care in patient health records (foundation metadata concept) | 130971000172101 | Common disorders and findings diagnosed in patients in intensive care. |
Clinical data entry | Belgian GP subset (foundation metadata concept) | 721000172106 | Common disorders, findings and procedures encountered by general practitioners in Belgium. This refset originated from a map between 3BT (Bilingual Biclassified Belgian Thesaurus) and SNOMED CT and has been enhanced thereafter. |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian subset for AllergyIntolerance, causative agent, non-drug (foundation metadata concept) | 50851000172106 | Common non-drug substances that cause allergies or intolerances. |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian subset for AllergyIntolerance, manifestation (foundation metadata concept) | 50861000172108 | Common manifestations of allergies or intolerances. Monthly release cycle. |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian subset for Vaccination (foundation metadata concept) | 50831000172102 | Common vaccine products used in Belgium. Monthly release cycle. |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian subset for Allergy Intolerance Causative Agent Drug Simple Refset | 50841000172109 | Common drugs that cause allergies or intolerances. Monthly release cycle. |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian subset for AllergyIntolerance, causative agent, drug (foundation metadata concept) | 181051000172108 | Exposure routes involved in allergy or intolerance |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian subset for AllergyIntoleranceNoAllergy (foundation metadata concept) | 181061000172105 | To indicate absence of allergy or intolerance |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian subset for AllergyIntoleranceType (foundation metadata concept) | 181041000172106 | Type of allergy or intolerance |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian simple reference set for translated plant materials (foundation metadata concept) | 551000172106 | To group plant material concepts that have been translated. |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian simple reference set for translated animal materials (foundation metadata concept) | 561000172108 | To group animal material concepts that have been translated. |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian simple reference set for translated edible substances (foundation metadata concept) | 541000172109 | To group edible substance concepts that have been translated. |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian Transversal FHIR HL7 subset for Body Laterality (foundation metadata concept) | 211271000172108 | Transversal subset of body laterality concepts. |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian Transversal FHIR HL7 subset for Body Location (foundation metadata concept) | 211411000172101 | Transversal subset of body structure concepts. |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian Transversal FHIR HL7 subset for Body Topography (foundation metadata concept) | 211201000172100 | Transversal subset of body topography concepts. |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian subset for Nursing Digital Referral Prescription Annex 81 Medical Problem (foundation metadata concept) | 211211000172102 | See Digital Referral Prescription Implementation Guide |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian subset for Nursing Digital Referral Prescription Annex 81 Nursing Diagnosis (foundation metadata concept) | 211261000172104 | See Digital Referral Prescription Implementation Guide |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian subset for Nursing Digital Referral Prescription Annex 81 Requested (foundation metadata concept) | 211171000172104 | See Digital Referral Prescription Implementation Guide |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian subset for Nursing Digital Referral Prescription Categories of Care (foundation metadata concept) | 211241000172103 | See Digital Referral Prescription Implementation Guide |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian subset for Nursing Digital Referral Prescription Diabetes Education Identifier (foundation metadata concept) | 211221000172107 | See Digital Referral Prescription Implementation Guide |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian subset for Nursing Digital Referral Prescription Educator Type (foundation metadata concept) | 211181000172101 | See Digital Referral Prescription Implementation Guide |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian subset for Nursing Digital Referral Prescription Nursing Care Requested (foundation metadata concept) | 211281000172106 | See Digital Referral Prescription Implementation Guide |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian subset for Nursing Digital Referral Prescription Nursing Prescription Technical Type (foundation metadata concept) | 211291000172109 | See Digital Referral Prescription Implementation Guide |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian subset for Nursing Digital Referral Prescription Parameter Type (foundation metadata concept) | 211191000172103 | See Digital Referral Prescription Implementation Guide |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian subset for Nursing Digital Referral Prescription Sample Substance Type (foundation metadata concept) | 211251000172101 | See Digital Referral Prescription Implementation Guide |
Data interoperability (FHIR ValueSet) | Belgian subset for Nursing Digital Referral Prescription Body Location (foundation metadata concept) | 211231000172105 | See Digital Referral Prescription Implementation Guide |
Content requests and submissions
Please submit all your feedback about content on SNOMED CT Belgium and all requests about new concepts and translations via our Request Management Portal through https://rmp.ihtsdotools.org.
The new site utilizes Single Sign-On (SSO). This means that once a user is logged into their SNOMED Account, they will be automatically logged into the Request Management Portal and will no longer need to sign in for each request.
If you encounter any issues logging in or using the platform, or for any other requests, please email us at terminologie@health.fgov.be or visit the Belgian Health Terminology Portal.
Via our Belgian Health Terminology Portal you can also submit batch requests using template files that you can find under Help & Contact.
Technical notes
Known Issues
Known Issues are content or technical issues where the root cause is understood, and the resolution has been discussed and agreed but has yet to be implemented. This can be due to a number of reasons, from lack of capacity within the current editing cycle, to the risk of impact to the stability of SNOMED CT if the fix were to be deployed at that stage in the Product lifecycle.
For the SNOMED CT Managed Service - Belgium Extension Release, the following Known Issues were identified, and agreed to be resolved in the next editing cycle.
Approvals
Final Version | Date | Approver | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
1.0 | Jun 8, 2026 | Pedro Diaz Lammertyn | Approved |
1.0 | Jun 9, 2026 | David Op de Beeck | Approved |
Draft Amendment History
Version | Date | Editor | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
0.1 | Jun 5, 2026 | Andrew Atkinson | Initial draft created |
0.2 | Jun 5, 2026 | Leong Hui Wong | Draft updates |
1.0 | Jun 8, 2026 | Pedro Diaz Lammertyn | Final updates |
1.0 | Jun 9, 2026 | David Op de Beeck | Approved |