Written question asked by Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat) on Wednesday, 17 October 2001, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 26 October 2001. It was answered by Hazel Blears (Labour) on Friday, 26 October 2001 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what stage of development SNOMED clinical terms project has now reached; when he expects the project to produce a final version; and if he will make a statement. - (Holding answer 22 October 2001).

Answer: Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what stage of development SNOMED clinical terms project has now reached; when he expects the project to produce a final version; and if he will make a statement. [9409] Ms Blears: [holding answer 22 October 2001]: SNOMED CT is being developed collaboratively with the College of American Pathologists. The terms of the agreement underpinning this work are such that overall responsibility for product delivery is with the SNOMED International Authority, a committee of the College of American Pathologists. An interim, internal product is scheduled to be delivered to the National Health Service Information Authority by 10 December 2001. SNOMED CT `first release to support implementation testing' is scheduled to follow in January 2002. This first release is to enable a programme of evaluative work to be undertaken in the NHS and is synonymous with a beta release. A subsequent release is scheduled for June 2002. The naming convention for releases is month-year, for example, this would be referred to as the June 2002 release. it is synonymous with a version 1. This will be the final version of the joint development project. Further releases are planned to follow every six months.

Secondary information