The American Dental Association (ADA) and the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO), the leading provider of standardized clinical terminology (SNOMED CT), have entered into a licensing agreement permitting the IHTSDO to incorporate the ADA's dental diagnostic codes into the IHTSDO's SNOMED CT medical code set.
By incorporating SNODENT, ADA's Systematized Nomenclature of Dentistry, terms within the SNOMED CT International Release, SNODENT will be available for use by dental professionals around the world. As part of this agreement, an International Dentistry Specialty Interest Group (Dental SIG) will be set up and overseen by the IHTSDO's Content Committee. Dr. Mark Jurkovich, a general dentist in Chisago City, Minn., and a member of the ADA's Council on Dental Benefit Programs (CDBP), will represent the ADA at the IHTSDO. The primary purpose of this Dental SIG will be to:
. Provide new, as well as updated dentistry content to the SNOMED CT Core
. Offer proposals of project groups to the Content Committee in development of the annual work plan
. Opportunities to improve organizational efficiencies
John van Beek, Chair of the IHTSDO Management Board, said, "I'm delighted with this cooperation arrangement. It will make it possible to incorporate the extensive dental codes of SNODENT into SNOMED CT for the benefit of all SNOMED CT users."
Dr. William R. Calnon, president of the ADA, added "the agreement will make SNODENT content more widely available for the ultimate benefit of patients and global health. Both parties have also committed to identify if there are ways of working more closely together to deliver further benefits."
