SNOMED Code System

The data ingestion pipeline implements an IFhirResourceEnhancer to map SNOMED codes to their corresponding concept descriptions. This is invoked after data conversion and before the Bundle is persisted.

The resource enhancer searches the FHIR bundle for any CodeableConcept elements with the SNOMED system URL. It then queries the SNOMED code system for the respective concept description.

This implementation does not currently support terminology queries against a FHIR terminology server. At present, the query is made against a JSON file containing the dictionary of descriptions. This file is located in "src/Infrastructure/Terminology/SnomedCodes.json".

Using the SNOMED Code System

Populating the SNOMED Code System

You must first populate the JSON file (SnomedCodes.json) with the SNOMED codes you wish to map.

The file is loaded into memory and used to map SNOMED codes to their descriptions. The file should be structured as follows:

{
  "123456789": "Concept description",
  "987654321": "Another concept description"
}

Output a CodeableConcept with SNOMED System URL

To make use of this enrichment process, simply include a CodeableConcept element in your FHIR resource with the SNOMED system URL. The resource enhancer will automatically lookup the code in the JSON file, and populate its description.

For example:

{
  "resourceType": "Procedure",
  "code": {
    "coding": [
      {
        "system": "http://snomed.info/sct",
        "code": "123456789"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Will be transformed to:

{
  "resourceType": "Procedure",
  "code": {
    "coding": [
      {
        "system": "http://snomed.info/sct",
        "code": "123456789",
        "display": "Concept description"
      }
    ]
  }
}