Requirements:
The information held in the MDRS has sometimes proven inadequate for all use cases. It has also proven difficult to validate in an automated manner, in order to verify that the Module Dependencies stated are correct.
We therefore need a way to state more detailed information within the Release packages, without completely re-designing the MDRS format itself, which would cause significant (and unjustified) disruption to all releases within the community.
Planned Changes:
In order to improve the depth of the information held (and to be both human and machine-readable) in Release packages, we are planning to add the additional data into the .JSON file that already exists in Release packages (eg) “release_package_information.json”:
“packageComposition” : {
“essentialComponents” : {
“moduleID of package being described” : {
“effectiveTime of package being described” : {
“moduleID + FSN of module 1 being included in package, that must form part of this product whenever it’s used” : “effectiveTime of module 1 being included in package” },
“moduleID + FSN of module 2 being included in package, that must form part of this product whenever it’s used”: “effectiveTime of module 2 being included in package” }}
“optionalComponents” : {
“moduleID of package being described” : {
“effectiveTime of package being described” : {
“moduleID + FSN of module 1 being included in package, that can optionally form part of this product whenever it’s used” : “effectiveTime of module 1 being included in package” },
“moduleID + FSN of module 2 being included in package, that can optionally form part of this product whenever it’s used”: “effectiveTime of module 2 being included in package”, }}
}
| Element | Description and use |
|---|---|
| “packageComposition” | This is the root element to contain all of the new data within the .JSON metadata file |
| “essentialComponents” | All children of this element are modules which, when the packaged product is utilised by end users, MUST form part of the edition/extension to be used. For example, any users of the NZ Extension would want to ensure that both “11000210104 |
| “optionalComponents” | All children of this element are modules which, when the packaged product is utilised by end users, can OPTIONALLY form part of the edition/extension to be used. For example, in the International Release, the map module “449080006 |
| “[moduleID of package being described]” | ModuleID of the Package being described by the new data in the “packageComposition” element of the .JSON file. |
| “[effectiveTime of package being described]” | effectiveTime of the Package being described by the new data in the “packageComposition” element of the .JSON file. |
| “[moduleID + FSN of module x being included in package, that must form part of this Edition whenever it’s used]” | ModuleID + FSN of module (pipe delimited) of all modules that are essential to this products’ “packageComposition”. |
| “[moduleID + FSN of module x being included in package, that can optionally form part of this Edition whenever it’s used]” | ModuleID + FSN of module (pipe delimited) of all modules that are an optional part of this products’ “packageComposition”. |
| “[effectiveTime of module x being included in package]” | effectiveTime of the modules that are part of this products’ “packageComposition”. |
Examples:
- For a July 2026 International Edition release (which is very basic, which only contains one extraneous module - 449080006 (ICD-10), for example, we would add the following in BOLD:
{
“effectiveTime” : “20260731”,
“deltaFromDate” : “20260131”, “deltaToDate” : “20260731”, “languageRefsets” : {
“id” : “900000000000508004”,
“term” : “Great Britain English language reference set” }, {
“id” : “900000000000509007”,
“term” : “United States of America English language reference set” },“packageComposition” : {
“essentialComponents” : {
}
“optionalComponents” : {
“ 900000000000207008” : {
“ 20260731” : {
“ 449080006 |SNOMED CT to ICD-10 rule-based mapping module (core metadata concept)|” : “20260731” },}
}
}
“licenceStatement” : “© 2026 International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation 2002-2026. All rights reserved. SNOMED CT® was originally created by the College of American Pathologists. ‘SNOMED’ and ‘SNOMED CT’ are registered trademarks of International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation, trading as SNOMED International. SNOMED CT has been created by combining SNOMED RT and a computer based nomenclature and classification known as Clinical Terms Version 3, formerly known as Read Codes Version 3, which was created on behalf of the UK Department of Health and is Crown copyright. This document forms part of the International Edition release of SNOMED CT® distributed by SNOMED International, which is subject to the SNOMED CT® Affiliate License, details of which may be found at https://www.snomed.org/snomed-ct/get-snomed.” }
- There is obviously the potential for far more complex examples, with multiple modules (both essential + optional) being incorporated into the same package. For example:
{
“effectiveTime” : “20260731”,
“deltaFromDate” : “20260131”,
“deltaToDate” : “20260731”,
“languageRefsets” : [ {
“id” : “900000000000508004”, “term” : “Great Britain English language reference set” }, {
“id” : “900000000000509007”, “term” : “United States of America English language reference set” } \],“packageComposition” : {
“essentialComponents” : {
“ 900000000000207008” : {
“ 20260531” : {
“ 827022005 |International Patient Summary module (core metadata concept)|” : “20260131” },
“890195008 |International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation Global Patient Set module (core metadata concept)|”: “20200731”,
}
“optionalComponents” : {
“ 900000000000207008” : {
“ 20260531” : {
“ 449080006 |SNOMED CT to ICD-10 rule-based mapping module (core metadata concept)|” : “20260731” },
}
}
}
“licenceStatement” : “© 2026 International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation 2002-2026. All rights reserved. SNOMED CT® was originally created by the College of American Pathologists. ‘SNOMED’ and ‘SNOMED CT’ are registered trademarks of International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation, trading as SNOMED International. SNOMED CT has been created by combining SNOMED RT and a computer based nomenclature and classification known as Clinical Terms Version 3, formerly known as Read Codes Version 3, which was created on behalf of the UK Department of Health and is Crown copyright. This document forms part of the International Edition release of SNOMED CT® distributed by SNOMED International, which is subject to the SNOMED CT® Affiliate License, details of which may be found at https://www.snomed.org/snomed-ct/get-snomed.” }
-
In addition to this, there is the possibility that when gathering all the dependencies that two or more different versions of the same module are included.
-
In this case, the packageComposition data would be used to explicitly state which version can be used (and has been tested and verified fit for purpose).
-
This shall be considered erroneous UNLESS that module is explicitly listed in the packageComposition data with a version that is equal to the greatest of the set of versions for that module. In this case, only the contents of this latest version of the module are included.
-
For example:
-
{ “effectiveTime” : “20260731”,
“deltaFromDate” : “20260131”,
“deltaToDate” : “20260731”,
“languageRefsets” : [ {
“id” : “900000000000508004”,
“term” : “Great Britain English language reference set” }, {
“id” : “900000000000509007”,
“term” : “United States of America English language reference set” } ], “packageComposition” : {
“900000000000207008” {
“20260731”: {
“890195008”: “20260731”,
“449080006”: “20260731” },
“20260131”: {
“890195008”: “20200731”,
“449080006”: “20260131” } } }
“licenceStatement” : “© 2026 International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation 2002-2026. All rights reserved. SNOMED CT® was originally created by the College of American Pathologists. ‘SNOMED’ and ‘SNOMED CT’ are registered trademarks of International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation, trading as SNOMED International. SNOMED CT has been created by combining SNOMED RT and a computer based nomenclature and classification known as Clinical Terms Version 3, formerly known as Read Codes Version 3, which was created on behalf of the UK Department of Health and is Crown copyright. This document forms part of the International Edition release of SNOMED CT® distributed by SNOMED International, which is subject to the SNOMED CT® Affiliate License, details of which may be found at https://www.snomed.org/snomed-ct/get-snomed.” }
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