# Intended Use **This Editorial Guide is used for Education Purposes Only. It is used in the Authoring Courses and Certifications. It is based on the January 2026 Editorial Guide.** SNOMED CT is intended to be used in healthcare: * To provide effective and comprehensive coverage of terms * As a terminological resource * For implementation in electronic health applications The purpose of SNOMED CT is to represent clinically relevant information reliably and reproducibly in electronic health applications, (most often electronic health records or EHRs) to support: * Delivery of multidisciplinary, high-quality healthcare to individuals and populations * Optimal retrieval, processing, and rendering of clinical information * Effective use of clinical information consistently and reproducibly * Use of clinical information for statistical and reporting purposes ## Semantic Interoperability The overall semantic interoperability of electronic health applications is achieved through the combined functioning of the information architecture of the application and the terminology that populates it. A basic principle of SNOMED CT is to create and maintain semantic interoperability of clinical information. *Semantic interoperability* is the capability of two or more systems to communicate and exchange information. Each system should be able to interpret the meaning of, and effectively use, received information. To achieve this goal, the meaning of the information must be agreed upon, consistent, and clearly expressed. ## Context Context is an important part of representing clinically relevant information. When entered in an EHR, concepts in the Procedure and Clinical finding hierarchies have the following default contexts. * The procedure has actually occurred (versus, e.g. being planned or cancelled) or the finding is actually present (versus, e.g. being ruled out or considered) * The procedure or finding refers to the patient of record (versus, e.g, a family member) * The procedure or finding is occurring now or at a specified time (versus some time in the past) When a concept is entered into an EHR, the information in the health record structure or its information model, can provide the context. In addition to using the record structure to represent context, there may be a need to override the defaults and specify a particular context using the formal logic of the terminology. For that reason, SNOMED CT has developed a context model, i.e Situation with explicit context, to allow users and/or implementers to specify context using the terminology, without depending on a particular record structure. The Situation with explicit context hierarchy, and various attributes assigned to concepts in the hierarchy, accomplish this. #### **Guidance for Electronic Health Application Users** Designers and implementers of electronic health applications need guidance to identify which fields within their record structure will critically affect the meaning of concepts. They require open strategies to preserve meaning if concepts are retrieved or transferred and to allow detection of equivalence to constructs derived from alternative approaches. (see also *Situation with Explicit Context* section) Provide Feedback --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.snomed.org/education/snomed-ct-education-editorial-guide/readme/snomed-ct-introduction/intended-use.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.