What's new in this release?

The following provides the changes implemented in the February 29, 2024 release of the Canadian Edition of SNOMED CT.


Serogroups W and W-135:


With Preservative or Without Preservative:


New Subsets:


COVID-19 vaccines:

Other vaccine concepts:

  • New vaccine codes for Human enterovirus 71, Meningococcal A conjugate, RSV ABRYSVO, RZV recombinant herpes zoster unspecified, Men-C-ACYW MenQuadfi SP, Td ADSORBED without preservative SP and LZV live attenuated herpes zoster unspecified were added.

  • All new immunization requests for change can be found on the Immunization RFC Dashboard. InfoRMS access, obtained via an InfoCentral account, is required.

The below sections are currently under review due to the Immunization Redesign

If you have questions or need information, please contact us

Introduction

The current pages form the SNOMED CT Content Development Canadian Editorial Guidelines for Immunization. 

The September 2020 release of the Canadian Edition of SNOMED CT included major changes to the Immunization content especially around the concepts that are generic.

COVID-19 vaccines:

  • The Public Health Surveillance Community expressed the need to access SNOMED CT codes for COVID-19 vaccine tradenames that are not marketed in Canada. This request has been approved, and those concepts will be created in the Canadian Edition of SNOMED CT. Different editorial guidelines have been applied to these concepts because of the challenge associated with referring to a single source of truth. It was agreed to create these as generic tradename concepts that would become potential parent concepts for concepts with variance in strength, dose form or manufacturer/market authorization holder, of the same vaccine that would be available internationally.  

  • These editorial guidelines are available on the VaccineAdministeredTradeNameCode page.

The AstraZeneca vaccine, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and the Moderna vaccine that were already published have been renamed (FSNs have been updated) and additional synonyms added to reflect formal approval from Health Canada.

The technology has also been added to all COVID-19 Tradenames. Additional information can be found on the VaccineAdministeredTradeNameCode page.

Vaccine Redesign

Between July 30 and September 3, 2020, Infoway hosted 5 presentations on different topics of importance: the Kick off meeting, the Influenza vaccines, the combined Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, HB, Hib and Polio vaccines, the Subset (refset) requirements and the naming conventions.

The Immunization redesign work was supported by different reference documents:

A working document was provided to the Public Health and the Health Terminologies Communities: Vaccines changes for review

A Summary of changes and questions pending answers - SNOMED CT Immunization Redesign Project was also shared with the communities.

We welcome feedback, comments and concerns. They can be posted on the PHS or HTC Forums or sent to [email protected]


English Generic Editorial Guidelines

Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) publishes Canadian Editorial Guidelines. These guidelines should be consulted, along with the guidelines in the following pages prior to creating any new content for submission to Infoway.

Implementers should be familiar with the SNOMED International Editorial Guidelines prior to creating submissions for new content.


Immunization Content Development

The development of the Immunization content is based on different documents such as:

  1. The product monograph found on the Health Canada Drug Product Database web site has been used as the source of truth for the product’s description.  When the product monograph information is either missing or unclear, other sources are consulted such as:  RxNorm, FDA DailyMed and the NHS drug dictionary terms, which handle similar products. 
  2. The Canadian Immunization Guide, published by Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) (and on-line updates) was the initial main reference document for most of the decisions around business requirements. The information can be found online at:

Main Reference Documentation


Other references, available in French and English, were used as part of this work. It is expected that any future development will consider these:

A) Canadian Products

1- Product monograph

a) For the current vaccine tradename

    • The product monograph is available through the Health Canada Drug Product Database Online Query Tool. 

b) For discontinued vaccine tradename

    • When a product is discontinued the product monograph is removed from the manufacturer site and from the Health Canada Drug product database
    • If the requestor does not have the product monograph, Infoway can reach out to the proper Health Canada department to obtain an archived copy.

c) For the current passive immunizing agent tradename

    • The product monograph is available through the Health Canada Drug Product Database Online Query Tool. 

d) For discontinued passive immunizing agent tradename

    • When a product is discontinued the product monograph is removed from the manufacturer site and from the Health Canada Drug product database
    • If the requestor does not have the product monograph, Infoway can reach out to the proper Health Canada department to obtain an archived copy.

2- Vaccines and Passive Agents Abbreviations List

a) For the current vaccine

    • The vaccine abbreviation is created by the Vaccine Vigilance Working Group (VVWG).

b) For the current passive immunizing agent

    • The passive immunizing agent abbreviation is created by Infoway based on the Canadian Immunization Guide.
    • Infoway seeks guidance from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) representative. 

c) Discontinued vaccine 

d) Discontinued passive immunizing agent

    • The current passive immunizing agent abbreviation list created by Infoway can be used for discontinued passive immunizing agent

3- Marketing Authorization Holder (MAH) vs Manufacturer's abbreviation list  

NOTE: Most of the Vaccine tradename and passive immunizing agent tradename product concepts have been developed using the Manufacturer's name and abbreviation. In the April 2019 release, some concepts have been updated to display the MAH instead of the Manufacturer. For details, refer to the Informs tickets BSCT-8425.

In some reference documentation, the Marketing Authorization Holder (MAH) is referred to as the manufacturer. This may not be true in all cases. 

a) For the current vaccine tradename

    • The manufacturer’s abbreviation is created by the Vaccine Vigilance Working Group (VVWG)

b) For the current passive immunizing agent tradename

    • The passive agent manufacturer’s abbreviation is created by Infoway, based on the VVWG principles.
    • Infoway seeks guidance from the Vaccine Supply Working Group (VSWG) representative. 

B) Non-Canadian Products

Content Subject to Future Discussion

This logo   is used throughout the guide to identify areas that will require future clarification from the community of practice.

Acknowledgement

Thank you to the Ontario representatives for their participation in the initial subsets development.

Thank you to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), Ontario and Manitoba for the French Preferred Terms submissions and review.