We are pleased to announce that the April 2025 release of the SNOMED CT New Zealand Extension is now available for use and can be accessed in both the NZ Health Terminology Service (NZHTS) and the SNOMED International Browser . This release includes several important updates and new content for healthcare systems across Aotearoa New Zealand. Below is a summary of the new content included in this release.
This reference set has been updated in partnership with Healthpoint to extend the SNOMED CT content available for the health directory services used by consumers, health professionals and helplines.
Patient friendly terms
The set of patient friendly terms in NZ English and Te Reo Māori for health service types has been further extended in partnership with Healthpoint and Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori | Māori Language Commission.
Emergency care reference sets
The chief presenting complaint and diagnosis reference sets have been updated as a result of the latest six-monthly review in February 2025.
CanShare reference sets
Te Aho o Te Kahu | Cancer Control Agency has developed 53 new reference sets and 443 new concepts included in this release.
For full release notes, technical updates, and known issues, please refer to the official documentation
As always, we welcome your feedback and questions. For more information on SNOMED CT implementation in New Zealand or if you would like an NZHTS API key to try out and explore, email us at standards@tewhatuora.govt.nz with your choice of API client id for your organisation.
Feel free to reach out at standards@tewhatuora.govt.nz or join the conversation on our standards channel here at eHealth Forum.
THIS LOOKS A M A Z I N G !!! I stumbled upon this when searching for health equity, quality improvement. Would love to learn more
Nga manaakitanga
Arya Black (Te Whakatohea, Te Whanau-a-Apanui), Kaimahi Toko i te Ora - Registered Social Worker
Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), Hauora a Toi Bay of Plenty
Great to hear you’re interested in learning more! SNOMED is a healthcare terminology used worldwide, as a member country we have our very own New Zealand Edition to create content to support our local context. We release this every six months, and have our October release just around the corner!
As well we’ve got the Terminology & Data Standards workshop at Digital Health Week which will be a great place to connect with others and learn more about our key standards in New Zealand
Great question! The Health Service Type reference set grows each release as @Skerruish collaborates with Healthpoint and others who expand the list to match the offerings provided in New Zealand.
Currently HPI facility and organisation identifiers are not linking to the Health Service Type reference set - it is definitely something that could be looked into (noting that there would often be several services provided by one facility). As always use cases drive a lot of development effort, so if you had a use case in mind this would really help. @samburchell of Healthpoint has used the SNOMED health service types to provide groupings to enable searching by the service you are after to identify the providers of the service. The powerpoint from a previous SNOMED NZ Hui goes into more detail of how they’ve used it to enhance their product and serve consumers well.
Another approach I know of is using the health service type reference set to harmonise HL7 messaging from Districts, where local codes from the PAS are mapped to SNOMED service types (which is a nod to all the work @TaniaS did on TMT rCP)
