NCTIS Update

The following is an end of year summary from NEHTA’s National Clinical Terminology and Information Services (NCTIS) program.

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SNOMED CT-AU®

The first consolidated version of SNOMED CT® for Australia was released on 7 December 2009. This is a significant milestone for NEHTA and the broader SNOMED community. It provides the first international release of the new SNOMED CT release format (RF2) and paves the way for this new international standard.

This first release of SNOMED CT-AU® provides the product platform for the incorporation and release of newly developed Australian terminology content. NEHTA is working on additional sets of new content to be incorporated into ongoing releases with the next release being in May 2010.

Australian Medicines Terminology (AMT)

All monthly AMT releases have been delivered on schedule. AMT now contains 99% of marketed Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) registrable products including all medicines, dressings, nutritional supplements and diagnostic agents listed under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

In 2009 NEHTA commenced a very broad review of the AMT Model to ensure it met the needs of the Australian e-health community. The AMT Team consulted widely during the review with both National and International stakeholders. The proposed international components of the model gained acceptance by the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO®) at the annual meeting in October. We are very grateful for the significant contribution to this review by many of our stakeholders.

National Emergency Department Reference Set Project

NEHTA was contracted by the Department of Health and Ageing to produce a standardised and clinically appropriate SNOMED CT‑AU terminology set for use in emergency departments nationally. The first version of this reference set is currently being reviewed by the National Emergency Department Project Advisory Committee. An extensive environment scan was undertaken to capture the key challenges faced and is currently being reviewed by contributors. Again we acknowledge the contribution to this by our stakeholders.

The next phase will see the setting up of early adopter sites with which we will work closely.

Clinical Information Products

The Clinical Information team have had an extremely busy year in delivering specifications for Pathology, Discharge Summary and Electronic Transfer of Prescription. This year also produced notable advances with the CDA specification work.

SNOMED CT-AU® and AMT Demonstration

We have incorporated a number of SNOMED CT-AU® and AMT demonstrations into the NEHTA Reference Platform to demonstrate the benefits and useability of these products. We will continue to extend the range and number of benefit demonstrations.


IHTSDO® and SNOMED CT® are registered trademarks of the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation.