Introduction

Background

Medicinal products are a fundamental component of healthcare information systems. Accurate and interoperable representation of medications supports a wide range of healthcare activities, including prescribing, dispensing, medication administration, pharmacovigilance, reimbursement, supply chain management, analytics, and research.

SNOMED CT provides a structured terminology model for representing medicinal products within the Pharmaceutical and Biologic Product hierarchy. This model represents medicines at multiple levels of abstraction, including ingredient-based medicinal products, medicinal product forms, clinical drugs defined by ingredient, strength, and dose form, and real-world authorized products and packages.

The SNOMED CT International Release provides concepts describing medicinal products in a manner that is internationally consistent and independent of national regulatory environments. However, many aspects of drug representation; such as authorized product names, proprietary dose forms, packaging characteristics, and locally marketed products, are specific to individual jurisdictions. These are represented through National SNOMED CT Drug Extensions.

The development and harmonization of national drug extensions is supported by the Drug Extension User Group (DEUG). The DEUG is a collaborative community of National Release Centers, regulators, and domain experts that defines best practices for representing medicinal products in SNOMED CT and promotes alignment between national drug extensions and the international drug model.

Together, the International drug model and national drug extensions enable consistent representation of medicinal products across healthcare systems while supporting national regulatory requirements and clinical workflows.

Objective

The objective of this implementation guide is to support the effective and consistent use of the SNOMED CT Drug Model in real-world settings, including both the International medicinal product model and national drug extensions.

Specifically, this guide aims to:

• Enable implementers to understand how the SNOMED CT Drug Model supports clinical, administrative, and analytic use cases

• Provide practical guidance for selecting and using appropriate drug concept classes in different contexts

• Support the alignment of national drug representations with the SNOMED CT International model

• Facilitate the implementation of interoperable drug data using SNOMED CT across systems and jurisdictions

This guide covers the implementation and use of the SNOMED CT Drug Model, including:

• The structure of the SNOMED CT medicinal product hierarchy

• The different drug concept classes (e.g. Medicinal Product, Medicinal Product Form, Clinical Drug, Real Clinical Drug) and their roles in implementation

• The relationship between the International drug model and National Drug Extensions

• Typical use cases for drug concepts in clinical, administrative, and analytic workflows

This guide does not cover:

• Detailed clinical modeling of medication-related concepts

• Terminology authoring processes or maintenance of SNOMED CT content, which are addressed in the SNOMED CT Editorial Guide and related authoring documentation

This guide is intended for stakeholders involved in the development, management, and implementation of SNOMED CT drug extensions.

National Release Centers are responsible for managing SNOMED CT content within their jurisdictions, including the development and maintenance of national extensions.

For NRCs, this guide provides guidance on:

• The benefits of using SNOMED CT to represent medicinal products

• The principles of the SNOMED CT drug model

• The steps involved in creating and maintaining National SNOMED CT Drug Extensions

• Harmonizing existing national drug dictionaries with the SNOMED CT drug model

Implementers include organizations deploying SNOMED CT drug extensions within healthcare systems such as:

• Electronic Health Records (EHRs)

• Pharmacy systems

• ePrescribing platforms

• Clinical decision support systems

For implementers, this guide provides guidance on:

• Deploying and using SNOMED CT drug extensions in clinical systems

• Implementation best practice principles

• Understanding the role of the different drug model classes and their relationship to specific use cases

• Selecting appropriate drug concept levels for different workflows

This implementation guide is organized into the following sections:

Provides background information on the SNOMED CT Drug Model, the objectives and scope of the guide, and the intended audience. It also introduces the role of the Drug Extension User Group (DEUG) and the relationship between the International drug model and national drug extensions.

Describes the main clinical, administrative, and analytic use cases supported by the SNOMED CT drug model. These use cases illustrate how the different drug model concept classes (e.g. Medicinal Product, Medicinal Product Form, Clinical Drug, Real Clinical Drug) are used across healthcare workflows such as prescribing, dispensing, administration, pharmacovigilance, procurement, and reporting.

Provides an overview of how medicinal products are represented in SNOMED CT. This section explains the structure of the Pharmaceutical / Biologic Product hierarchy, the different concept classes in the drug model, and the relationship between the International medicinal product model and national drug extensions.

Describes how SNOMED CT drug concepts are used within healthcare information models. This section explains how drug concepts are bound to data elements in clinical systems and how they support interoperability across workflows such as prescribing, dispensing, medication administration, and reporting.

Provides implementation guidance for using SNOMED CT drug concepts in healthcare systems. This includes best practices for storing and querying SNOMED CT drug data, integrating national drug extensions, mapping national drug dictionaries, and supporting analytics and reporting