SNOMED CT Publishing

Publishing a SNOMED CT release

Snow Owl allows you to export a SNOMED CT release in RF2 format for publication.

Starting the export

• Go to File > Export…​ > Snow Owl > SNOMED CT to RF2 , and click Next.

Specifying the export settings

Specify the export settings on the SNOMED CT RF2 Content Export Wizard:

Setting	Description
Release format	A Full release contains every version of every component ever released. This includes historical information about the components. A Snapshot release contains only the most recent version of every component ever released (both active and inactive components). A Delta release contains only component versions created since the last release. Each component version represents a new component or a change in an existing component. If you chose this option, you have to specify starting and finishing effective date by clicking the calendar icons.
Maintainer	File names have a CountryNamespace element consisting of a CountryCode and a NamespaceId. It is to identify the organization responsible for developing and maintaining the file. The National release center option is selected by default, where you can specify the country code.
Namespace	Select the namespace that would be displayed in the file names.
Restrict to effective time	Available for Delta release format. Specify starting and finishing effective date by clicking the calendar icons.
Include pre-release content	Check this box, if you want to include unversioned content as well.

SNOMED CT RF2 Content Export Wizard – release format and effective times

Selecting modules for export

On the second page of the wizard, you can select which module or modules you want to export.

SNOMED CT RF2 Content Export Wizard – Select modules

Selecting the Reference Sets to export

This page allows you to select which Reference Sets you want to export. At least one SNOMED CT Reference Set should be selected to export.

Reference Sets are grouped by the module of the Reference Set metadata concept.

If you want to export all Reference Sets, use the Select all button. When no Reference Sets are selected on the UI, no Reference Sets are exported.

Reference Sets of a type are exported into a single file.

SNOMED CT RF2 Content Export Wizard – Select Reference Sets

Starting the export

Once you have selected the modules, hit Finish to start the export.

You can check the ongoing process in the Remote Jobs View, the file can be downloaded by double-clicking on the finished export process in the Remote Jobs View.

Export file

• File names:

  • Date reflects the effective time of the latest release, if unpublished components are exported, the date of the export is added

  • Extension ID filenames are prefixed with country code. This is stored in a configuration file but can be overridden from the Export wizard as well

• Description files are created on a per language basis

• Reference Sets of a type are exported into a single file

• In the output files, components are ordered by version and component ID