Principles of Health Interoperability HL7 and SNOMED

Joined-up healthcare makes information available when and where it is needed to improve safety, efficiency and effectiveness. Politicians may take interoperability between healthcare computer systems for granted, but it is non-trivial. Healthcare integration projects are notoriously under-estimated and come in over-budget and over-time. Joined-up healthcare depends on standards. The two leading standards are the SNOMED CT, which is a clinical terminology (semantics) and HL7 Version 3, which is a