Changes to digital terminologies
View details of the planned changes to dm+d and SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension digital terminologies and the delivery timeline.
Digital Medicines is standardising a seamless exchange of information about patient medications, allergies, intolerances and prescriptions across all NHS clinical IT systems.
Currently there are gaps in end-to-end exchange of medicines data meaning manual transcription is involved which is open to clinical error.
To reduce this risk, several changes are being made to dm+d and SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension to make these two terminologies more closely aligned in terms of content and availability.
This will improve safety and efficiency, reduce transcription and clinical errors and allow staff to focus even more on care and provide patients with a better experience.
Issues to resolve
There are differences between the content in dm+d and SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension.
There are also differences between the release cycles of the data. This means the same medication may have different information published about it depending on when the most recent release is available to the user. This creates confusion and challenges for interoperability. Sometimes there is a time lag of up to 6 weeks before the same data is published in both terminologies.
Changes to dm+d content
Changes to SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension content
Proposed timescales
The schedule below provides the intended delivery dates, but they are subject to change. Please visit this page on a regular basis to ensure you are aware of the latest delivery dates.
Changes | Current delivery forecast | Supporting resources |
---|---|---|
Addition of dm+d historical codes as an (XML) release file | Live from 16 January 2023 | |
Updating current dm+d VTM content to link to 'contains only' medicinal product concepts in SNOMED International edition |
Live from 13 February 2023 Remaining updates - from April 2023 |
File VTM content to link to contains only |
Shift to use of UK extension IDs for all VMP concepts in both dm+d and SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension |
Live 27 February 2023 - sample batch Live 20 March 2023 - sample batch 02 Live from 8 May 2023 - see batch information for details |
|
Addition of 'Ingredients for VTMs' in dm+d (XML) release files and SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension | Live from 23 September 2024 | Further information on ingredients for VTMs |
Addition of 'Trade Family' and 'Trade Family Group' to dm+d (XML) release files | To be confirmed | |
Stated parent(s) for ingredients and 'modification of' defined for dm+d content | From 25 September 2023 | |
Stated parent(s) for form and unit of measure concepts defined for dm+d content - extra modelling to be added to the SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension |
Phase 1 forms from 20 November 2023 Phase 2 forms - Quarter 1 2024 |
|
Updating SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension model to reflect the SNOMED International model for national drug extensions | From Quarter 2 2025 | Further information about updating the SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension model |
Quality and Service Improvements 2024-2025
The UK Medicines Terminology Strategy Group which is overseeing the project has approved the following Quality and Service Improvements work to focus on during 2024-2025.
Planned work |
Current delivery forecast |
Supporting resources |
Update dm+d Standard (SCCI0052) to incorporate current enhancements | 2026 | Further information for updating SCCI0052 |
Add dm+d links to BNF codes within the Terminology Server | Live from 3 June 2024 | |
Assess further alignment between IDMP and dm+d | From Quarter 3 2025 | |
Undertake survey regarding dm+d and SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension release cycles | Quarter 4 2024 |
Aligning the release cycles
Once the content changes to dm+d and SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension have been completed, the release cycles of dm+d and SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension will become more closely aligned so that every 4 weeks, both data sets are released within a couple of days of each other.
Details will be announced in due course.
Further help
If you have any specific queries relating to the dm+d and SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension changes, please contact [email protected].
Last edited: 3 March 2025 4:54 pm