Dear all,
The Production release of the September 2026 SNOMED CT® International Edition is now available to all users, from the MLDS distribution site.
All files distributed for the September 2026 International Edition are available from the “September 2026 v1.0” version in the “SNOMED CT International Edition” project, which can be found on the “SNOMED Releases” page in MLDS, accessed here:
The SNOMED CT International Edition contains SNOMED CT files in Release Format 2 (RF2) only, distributed in a zipped file archive:
- SnomedCT_InternationalRF2_PRODUCTION_20260901T120000Z.zip
The Release Notes (“doc_SnomedCTReleaseNotes_Current-en-US_INT_20260901.pdf”) can be downloaded as distinct files from the same MLDS release version, or accessed online:
Those Members using MLDS as their distribution site will find that their affiliates have access to the new release automatically.
All vendors and affiliates should please contact their National Release Centre (NRC) for information on when the latest release package will be available for download from the NRC website. Contact details for all NRC’s can be found here - http://www.snomed.org/members/
Please refresh your memory of all major changes to this upcoming release, as published on the Early Visibility page here: https://conf.spaces.snomed.org/wiki/spaces/RMT/pages/343801863/2026+Early+Visibility+Release+Notifications, and in the Release Notes (where changes to the final Production package made throughout the Release cycle are logged).
NOTICE:
As planned, the configuration governing the maximum length of Fully Specified Names (FSN) and Synonyms was increased to a maximum of 4096 characters (from the original 255) as part of the July 2026 International Edition release. This meant that Descriptions could now be increased beyond the original 255 character limit without prior notice.
In August 2026, the first release was published containing actual terms that had been expanded beyond 255 characters (three descriptions in total). They were only increased marginally above the previous 255 character limit (to 258, 263 and 264 characters), and future changes are also predicted to only minimally exceed 255 characters. Going forward, these changes will now be introduced without prior notice, but will only be implemented where clinically necessary in order to precisely describe the term.
NOTE: Future description changes or additions will align with the updated specification of description length up to 4096 characters without early visibility of these changes.
If you have any questions about the September 2026 International Edition release, or have difficulties downloading the files from the distribution site, please contact SNOMED International at release@snomed.org with “September 2026 International Edition release question” in the subject line.
Kind regards,
Andrew Atkinson | Release Manager