SNOMED and the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics collaborative have finalized a five-year partnership designed to support clinical and informatics research.
SNOMED International and the non-profit global research cooperation Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) have established a five-year partnership to expand prospects for healthcare research communities.
The Columbia University Department of Biomedical Informatics coordinates OHDSI, which offers open-source solutions for the study and sharing of healthcare and observational data. According to the news release, their purpose is to “improve health by empowering a community to jointly develop evidence that encourages better health decisions and better care.”
OHDSI’s common data model, Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP), utilizes SNOMED Clinical Terms (CT) as a core terminology, which allows the use of other terminology and classification models through computable linkages.
SNOMED’s relationship with OHDSI delivers complete conceptualizations of healthcare topics and material, such as social determinants of health (SDOH), devices, and disease severity scores, to OHDSI and its users. OHDSI will also have improved access to large-scale research concept descriptions. Users of the OHDSI can offer SNOMED with clinical validation, frequency of usage data, and validation of SNOMED CT content modelling as they use these services.
The collaboration is part of SNOMED International’s member-and stakeholder-driven five-year strategy, which includes genomic content collaboration and engagement with the research community as major goals.
“Both OHDSI and SNOMED International are working towards creating a healthcare environment that provides both patients and clinicians the real-world evidence needed to make informed and important decisions”, “SNOMED plays a critical role by delivering the comprehensive health terminologies necessary for OHDSI to generate reliable and reproducible evidence. Our community is thrilled to formalize this partnership so we can continue this important work.”
George Hripcsak, the Vivian Beaumont Allen professor and chair of Columbia University’s Department of Biomedical Informatics
Though OHDSI and SNOMED have been working together informally for the past few years, formalizing the partnership allows additional opportunities and benefits for both parties, enabling them to further their efforts.
As part of the formal partnership, representatives from both organizations will collaborate to produce joint work and highlight areas of clinical and informatics research that benefit from each organization’s products. Currently, both parties are developing an initial two-year work plan that includes:
- Use of SNOMED CT for research and analytics
- Evidence of benefits of SNOMED CT in use
- SNOMED CT and derivative quality improvement
- Content collaboration
- Open engagement between clinical and research communities between the two organizations
- Joint communications regarding the collaboration and work
Through the collaboration, SNOMED CT will be available to all OHDSI users for use in its products. Additionally, SNOMED International will work with OHDSI to provide SNOMED CT Development Licenses to users in non-member countries.
