HL7 International and SNOMED International announced this week that they had renewed their collaborative relationship for five years, extending their commitments to develop projects advancing global health data interoperability.  

The organizations say they will focus on initiatives satisfying the use of the SNOMED CT terminology product with FHIR and other HL7 tools – especially when it comes to maintaining the HL7 International Patient Summary Free Set in line with new requirements and changes to SNOMED CT.  

"The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly heightened the demand for more seamless health data exchange. Our collaboration with SNOMED International is critical to fostering data interoperability," said HL7 CEO Dr. Charles Jaffe in a statement.  

WHY IT MATTERS  

The organizations, which have been working together for the past seven years, said they continued to see the need for cooperation among global health standards.   

"Our long-standing collaboration with SNOMED and the resulting incorporation of SNOMED CT vocabulary within HL7 standards, including FHIR, will advance us to a world in which everyone can access the right data where and when they need it," Jaffe said.  

The organizations have planned target activities through July 2023, with the first stage of work focusing on licensing arrangements, change requests and terminology binding for the use of SNOMED CT in HL7 products; maintenance and updates to the HL7 IPS Free Set; and promoting the use of SNOMED CT and FHIR in international use cases.   

SNOMED and HL7 are also working on identifying other joint activities, such as collaborative efforts at HL7 FHIR Connectathon events.  

"The joint commitment and work produced by our two organizations offers tangible interoperability tools that meet the breadth of content and messaging needs that we are observing globally,“ said SNOMED International CEO Don Sweete.

The partnership renewal comes on the heels of HL7's announcement, also this week, that it was launching a FHIR accelerator for public health called Helios.  

The alliance – which pulls together state, tribal, local, territorial and federal agencies; private and philanthropic sector partners; and other groups – aims to strengthen capacity and streamline data sharing across all levels of public health using the FHIR standard.  

Helios will be jointly supported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.  

"Public health has risen in urgency and importance over the last 18 months," said National Coordinator for Health IT Micky Tripathi in a statement. "FHIR accelerators have had great success in engaging implementers as early as possible to help identify and overcome longstanding barriers to interoperability."   

"The Helios alliance is a market-based implementation collaboration that will help to ensure FHIR development is coordinated and focused on real world public health needs," Tripathi added.  

THE LARGER TREND  

The COVID-19 pandemic is the latest – but by no means the first – example of the importance of interoperability on a global stage. This summer, G7 leaders acknowledged that importance in a communiqué that included a commitment to working toward adopting a standardized minimum dataset for patient information.  

And an increasing number of countries have adopted the SNOMED CT standardized language in recent years, allowing for improved communication and faster decision-making.  

Just this past month, the United Arab Emirates confirmed it would use SNOMED CT in its national health records.  

ON THE RECORD  

"Collaboration agreements of this nature are an important step in answering the call to action being expressed recently by G7 leaders to address pressing interoperability issues," said SNOMED's Sweete in a statement.

Kat Jercich is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Twitter: @kjercich
Email: kjercich@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.