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SNOMED® is the Systemized Nomenclature of Medicine. It is a controlled medical terminology (CMT). At its simplest, a SNOMED is a coded vocabulary of medical concepts and expressions used in healthcare. It is designed to provide the terminology needed to code the entire medical record. Controlled means that the content of the terminology is validated with careful quality assurance procedures in place to ensure that the terminology is structurally sound, biomedically accurate and consistent with current practice. SNOMED is a work of the College of American Pathologists (CAP), a medical specialty organization of Board-certified pathologists. Oversight of the "content" is provided by a multi-disciplinary editorial board with broad representation from clinical practice and academia.

What is a Clinical Reference Terminology?
A reference terminology is defined as "a set of concepts and relationships that provide a common reference point for comparisons and aggregation of data about the entire health care process, recorded by multiple different individuals, systems or institutions."

A reference terminology is an ontology of concepts and the relationships linking them. An ontology is a collection of terms, similar to a dictionary or glossary, that is organized by meaning rather than alphabetically. A reference terminology can allow the concepts to be defined in a formal and computer-processable way. For example, hierarchical relationships can be defined using the "is a" link to identify which concepts are included within broader concepts. Along with other relationships, a network of meaning is created that is useful for computer representation and processing that allows a computer to answer basic questions such as: "Is angina pectoris a type of heart disease?"

By creating computable definitions, a reference terminology supports reproducible transmission of patient data between information systems. It supports consistent and understandable coding of clinical concepts and so is a central feature for the function of computerized patient records.

Origins of SNOMED CT
Introduced in 1965, the Systematized Nomenclature of Pathology (SNOP) was the precursor to SNOMED. SNOP consisted of logically organized codes for the key terms that describe the pathology case:

Topography - The part of the body from which the specimen came
Morphology - The pathologic change documented in the report
Procedure - The method by which the specimen was obtained
In the mid-1970s, work began to expand the coded vocabulary beyond pathology and develop a terminology that would encompass the entire medical record. The first edition of the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED) was published in 1977 and was soon followed by SNOMED II in 1980. This work was refined with another release, in 1993, of SNOMED International, which was updated annually through 1998. Work continued with the release of SNOMED RT version 1.0 in January 2001 and SNOMED RT 1.1 in July of 2001.

Is SNOMED only for pathology applications? While one of SNOMED CT's precursors focused mainly upon pathology, today's SNOMED CT has a broad scope that encompasses all of healthcare. SNOMED CT is the merger of SNOMED RT and the United Kingdom's CTV 3 terminology, formerly known as the Read codes. SNOMED CT's 19 hierarchies provide coverage in diseases, findings, procedures, body structures, pharmacy products and other health care concepts.

The hierarchical nature of SNOMED CT enables recording and documentation of clinical data at the appropriate level of detail that can later be analyzed from other perspectives and groupings.

The integration of a clinical terminology such as SNOMED CT into computer-based patient records provides a comprehensive and functional terminology for clinical care. SNOMED CT can be utilized to index, store and retrieve patient information for clinical purposes. SNOMED CT helps ensure comparability of data records between multiple practitioners, across diverse platforms and computer systems.

What is a Classification System?
A classification system has been defined as: A systematic arrangement into classes or groups based on perceived common characteristics; a means of giving order to a group of disconnected facts. The groups or classes may have similar or like characteristics or may even be synonymous.