London, United Kingdom, April 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --
Brazil’s Ministry of Health and SNOMED International announce that as of April 1, 2018, Brazil has joined the organization as SNOMED International’s thirty-third Member.
With SNOMED CT already used in various parts of the country, Brazil joined SNOMED International to support nationwide health system transformation as a foundational element of its ehealth Strategy, digiSUS. As outlined in this national strategy, the SUS Monitoring and Evaluation Department of Brazil’s Ministry of Health is responsible overall for governance of the National Electronic Health Strategy and its related evaluation and development. Demonstrated through its membership in SNOMED International, Brazil has defined SNOMED CT as the chosen international reference terminology for use in its clinical systems supporting the national ehealth strategy.
SNOMED CT is the world’s most comprehensive health terminology. Founded in 2007 by nine charter nations, SNOMED International is a not-for-profit, member-owned and driven international organization. The addition of Brazil has grown the organization’s Membership to thirty-three countries and territories across five continents, and enables Brazil to manage and use SNOMED CT and other related products, as well as participate on the organization’s General Assembly.
“SNOMED International is proud to have SNOMED CT play a role in supporting Brazil’s digiSUS national strategy” says SNOMED International CEO, Don Sweete. “Brazil envisions that a digital, data-driven environment will play a key role in accelerating a shift to value-based care, and SNOMED International is pleased to take part in progressing this journey.”
Dr. Juliana Zinader, General Coordinator, SUS Monitoring and Evaluation Department of the Ministry of Health comments that "we have achieved a milestone within the field of Information and Communication Technologies in Health in Brazil. With the adoption of SNOMED CT as the standard of clinical terminology for the Electronic Health Record, the country takes an important step towards semantic interoperability.” Dr. Zinader continues on to state that “a clinically validated, semantically rich and controlled terminology like SNOMED CT will add processable meaning to Brazil’s EHR, playing a key role in efforts to improve the efficiency and quality of the National Health System which is of particular benefit to the health of the general population."
Brazil becomes the fourth country in the Latin America region to join SNOMED International, positioning the region for increased interoperability as well as the promise of leveraging learnings among its regional and international counterparts. SNOMED CT is part of the national infrastructure to ensure the exchange of accurate, relevant and timely information across all information systems supporting direct care, self-care and secondary uses of health information.
To learn more about SNOMED International and SNOMED CT, visit www.snomed.org.
About SNOMED International:
SNOMED International is a not-for-profit organization that owns and develops SNOMED CT, the world's most comprehensive healthcare terminology product. We play an essential role in improving the health of humankind by determining standards for a codified language that represents groups of clinical terms. This enables healthcare information to be exchanged globally for the benefit of patients and other stakeholders. We are committed to the rigorous evolution of our products and services, to deliver continuous innovation for the global healthcare community. SNOMED International is the trading name of the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation.
About SUS Monitoring and Evaluation Department, Brazil Ministry of health
SUS Monitoring and Evaluation Department, (DEMAS / SE / MS) is a unity of the Executive Secretariat of Brazil Ministry of Health, which oversees and coordinates activities related to the federal planning and budgeting systems; administrative organization and modernization; accounting; financial management and human resources; information and computer science; and general services.
In addition, the Executive Secretariat is also responsible for a set of internal and external tasks and information systems management activities, among them the coordination of the process of monitoring, evaluating and managing SUS information systems and the national e-health policy.
DEMAS coordinates the formulation of the SUS Monitoring and Evaluation Policy and the processes of elaboration, negotiation, and implementation. DEMAS also coordinates the implementation of the norms, instruments and measures necessary to strengthen SUS monitoring and evaluation practices. It also articulates and integrates the monitoring and evaluation actions of all activities carried out by the units of the Ministry of Health.
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