The pathology information standards available include:
Development products will also be made available and conform to the IReS Terminology Product Development Lifecycle (external PDF).
NHS National Laboratory Medicine Catalogue
NHS UK Read Pathology Bounded Code List
PBCL Read Code to SNOMED Code Translation Table
The National Laboratory Medicine Catalogue is a catalogue of SNOMED CT coded laboratory medicine test requests intended for use by Pathology services and their users across the NHS, and is still under development under the ownership of the Royal College of Pathologists.
The status of the National Laboratory Medicine Catalogue is ‘Technology Preview’, as defined in the IReS Terminology Product Development Lifecycle (external PDF). This means that trial implementation is encouraged to evaluate utility and safety, and to identify possible design improvements. Full live deployment is not recommended and will be at the user's own risk, where such risk is permitted by other governance processes.
The catalogue has not been updated since April 2014. Implementations may have to change if the product design changes in light of experience. If the product is found to be only minimally used or useful, or unsafe, then NHS Digital as the UK National Release Centre for SNOMED CT is under no obligation to continue releasing this product.
Status: Technology Preview
The Pathology Bounded Code List (PBCL) was developed to provide a defined or bounded subset of Read codes for use in laboratory to GP messaging. Use of the PBCL ensures that there is common understanding by both sending and receiving clinicians of the laboratory investigations and results.
The PBCL continues to be supported following the final release of Read CTV3 in April 2018 but will only be updated on an ad hoc basis where there is an identified national need. Subscribers will be notified in advance of any changes.
Read important information on the retirement of Read Version 2 and Clinical Terms Version 3.
A set of map tables translating the Read Codes in the PBCL EDIFACT laboratory report message to SNOMED CT codes to support transmission, reception, storage and retrieval of primary care pathology results.
Status: Supported
Mapping tables and guidance to enable historical data previously captured using an antecedent legacy version of SNOMED II, 3.x International or SNOMED RT to be migrated to SNOMED CT.
Expected use cases include, but are not limited to, histopathology laboratories and their Laboratory Information Management Systems and suppliers, and secondary users of histopathology data including Cancer Registries.
Status: Technology Preview
Following approval of the DAPB4017: Pathology Test and Results Standard by the Data Alliance Partnership Board in August 2021 we are pleased to announce the first major version of the Unified Test List (UTL) has now been published as the SNOMED CT UK Pathology Extension as part of the SNOMED CT UK Clinical Edition 32.5.0.
UTL is now formally part of SNOMED CT UK with a status of ‘Draft For Trial Use’ as defined in the IReS Terminology Product Development Lifecycle (external PDF). Future Live and Beta releases of the UTL will reflect versioning aligned to the appropriate SNOMED CT UK Clinical Edition.
UTL is a catalogue of SNOMED CT coded laboratory medicine test requests intended for use by Pathology services and their users across the NHS.
Find supporting information and provide feedback on the Pathology & Diagnostics Information Standards Collaboration Space.
Status: Draft for Trial Use