Translating SNOMED CT: New tools, tactics and approaches

Episode 06: Show Notes

SNOMED International produces a terminology intended to provide a standardized and structured way of representing clinical information so it can be accurately captured, shared, understood, and used across healthcare systems. For an international organization with more than 50 Member countries globally, translation is a pressing and constant challenge. 

In this episode, Kelly Kuru, Chief Collaborations & Communications Officer for SNOMED International, is joined by Ole Våge, chair of SNOMED’s Translation User Group and a terminologist at the Norwegian Health Directorate; Feikje Hielkema-Raadsveld, computational linguist at Nictiz, a Dutch knowledge organization for digital information provision in healthcare; and Kai Kewley, a technical specialist for SNOMED International's Implementation Support Team. 

Following the Translation User Group meeting held in Oslo in April 2025, these key participants discuss the need for accurate translations of SNOMED CT as more and more non-English speaking countries become Members, the complexities and logistics involved, and the different approaches taken by different countries. They also unpack how the SNOMED Translation User Group is advancing the translation of the terminology internationally, new and evolving tooling that SNOMED International has been developing, and how AI is being leveraged to support translation. 

Key Points from This Episode:

• [00:51] An introduction to the topic of translation.
• [02:26] The roles of the guests and the importance of translation.
• [04:29] The complexities of SNOMED CT implementation for non-English speaking countries.
• [05:41] The resources and logistics of translation.
• [07:08] Considerations for an international organization before becoming a member.
• [08:53] How different countries decide what they will or won’t translate.
• [11:10] Engagement and feedback on SNOMED’s translation and implementation internationally.
• [14:35] The evolution of the Translation User Group.
• [17:58] The development of tooling used for translation.
• [21:12] How AI is being leveraged to support translation.
• [23:45] What success looks like in the translation space.

Quotes:

“I think it's very important that we go to all this effort of translation because that's what enables us to use international code systems and you can't have interoperability with all kinds of local code systems.” — Feikje Hielkema-Raadsveld [0:03:29] 

“So when you're translating anything, there's always problems like words in languages that look alike, but don't mean the same thing, like false friends. There's a problem that languages have different concepts, different distinctions that they draw, that they have words for. So one of the examples we faced was SNOMED contains a concept for ‘giddy’ and it contains a concept for ‘dizzy.’ And in Dutch, that's both translated as ‘duizelig’. And actually, SNOMED contained a third concept as well, which was ‘giddy and dizzy.’ And that one really stumped us, obviously. So those are problems that you always face whatever you're translating. But SNOMED, it's more complex because for one thing, it's very important that you get it right. It's health care data. So even the finest distinction matters. Every concept is supposed to be unique. So if you arrive at the same translation, you have a problem that you need to solve. — Feikje Hielkema [04:38]

“I think we have reached some kind of maturity now that instead of resolving individual translations, individual concepts, we are looking into what overarching issues are we facing when we translate ontology, which also depends on a certain culture.” — Ole Våge [0:16:25]

“I feel really excited about this new effort being made because tooling was painful for us when we did this initial big translation. It helped us, but also caused some obstacles. So this, I think, would be a big next step for having high-quality translations of SNOMED CT in many countries.” — Ole Våge [0:20:48]

Links mentioned in this episode:

SNOMED’s Translation User Group

Ole Våge

Norwegian Health Directorate

Feikje Hielkema-Raadsveld

Nictiz

Kai Kewley

Kelly Kuru

SNOMED International

SNOMED International Implementation Support Portal

SNOMED International translation tools