The EU Commission is promoting the improvement of the semantic interoperability of health data and the development of national capacities for health terminologies in preparation for the European Health Data Space (EHDS).

SNOMED CT is recognised as having great potential as the largest international healthcare terminology. The aim is to make SNOMED CT available in most Member States and to enable the development of comprehensive, high-quality clinical content in electronic patient records. Furthermore, the semantic interoperability of health data is to be increased, thus facilitating the cross-border exchange and reuse of health data. This will also improve patients' access to their health data and its translation.

The European Commission is therefore contributing to the costs of EU countries' membership of SNOMED International in order to make SNOMED CT available to healthcare organisations (e.g. hospitals, healthcare providers, health research institutions, health IT providers). This includes promoting and facilitating the use of SNOMED CT, implementation for specific use cases in Germany and capacity building measures such as training initiatives, user forums and helpdesks.

In addition, Germany is actively involved in efforts to implement MyHealth@EU for the cross-border exchange of health data. This currently includes the transmission of electronic patient summaries and electronic prescriptions. In future, laboratory results, findings and reports on imaging as well as discharge reports are also to be addressed. Germany is also an active partner in projects to develop the European Health Data Space.

SNOMED CT plays a central role in all of these initiatives as one of the basic coding systems for achieving cross-border semantic interoperability. All citizens and EU member states will benefit from the German implementation of SNOMED CT, especially when it comes to cross-border data exchange.

Results to be achieved through funding from the EU Commission:

• Promotion of the translation of SNOMED CT into German
• Submission of change requests from German users to the International Edition of SNOMED CT
• Support for the implementation of SNOMED CT in specific use cases in Germany
• Training initiatives and user forums
• Improvement of cross-border interoperability of health data
• Contribution to the development of the European Health Data Space

Co-funded by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be held responsible for them.