dm+d was developed as a stand-alone product which could be implemented in systems independent of the strategic clinical terminology solution the NHS was committed to - SNOMED CT® (Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms).
However, it was still important that dm+d was integrated with the SNOMED CT solution and the SNOMED CT content and identifiers were therefore used. All unique identifiers used in dm+d are SNOMED CT codes.
Clinical systems that do not need to provide users with access to clinical terms can use dm+d alone to give access to standard codes and terms for medicines and devices.
All dm+d concepts have a SNOMED CT code allocated, but some codes that are valid on dm+d may be inactive in the SNOMED CT data.
Not all attributes and values populated on dm+d are present in the SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension data. You can find more information by viewing the Medications Masterclass: SNOMED vs dm+d presentation on YouTube (transcript available on YouTube).
dm+d data must be used by systems when information about medicines used in the care of NHS patients is transferred electronically from one system to another. This is to ensure compliance with the SCCI0052 standard.
Documentation relating to the SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension can be found at the SNOMED CT home page.
Register to access NHS England TRUD data
The documentation for a particular SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension data release can be found at SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension Release.
SNOMED and SNOMED CT are registered trademarks of SNOMED International.