Hi Andrew. I persist the SNOMED CT (NZ Edition) distribution in an MSSQL relational database. However, all third-party access to this is via an HL7 FHIR Terminology Services API (Terminz). This facilitates returning Value Sets that represent the NZ Reference Sets and performing filtered queries (e.g. text searches). I suggest that you review this as an exemplar with a view to using the open source SnowStorm FHIR Terminology Service that’s now provided with the NZ Edition. In even the short-term it will pay dividends to use an existing Terminology Service, rather than develop this capability yourself. There is an extremely steep learning curve when it comes implementing anything beyond basic SNOMED CT functionality, e.g. dynamic querying using ECL (Expression Constraint Language). You may even wish to join the ever-growing chorus of implementers in the Sector calling for a National Terminology Service!
Andrew, as a suggestion take a look at the NZ EC/ED Reference Sets here…https://terminz-itp.azurewebsites.net/Home/Terminology While your team may have generic SQL Server experience, it’s equally (if not more) important to have SNOMED CT knowledge in order to implement it correctly (e.g. Reference Sets in the NZ Distribution are sets of pointers to other tables and you also need to understand how to use Language Reference sets in order to retrieve the correct descriptions).
Coming late to this party, but you could also contact Damien.Campbell@acc.co.nz who is looking after ACC’s SNOMED to Read translation table using SQL.