30 January 2026

SNOMED International and the Global Medical Device Nomenclature (GMDN) Agency have announced a new collaboration aimed at strengthening the connection between clinical and regulatory medical device data to support safer, more efficient, and more interoperable health systems worldwide.

The collaboration brings together SNOMED International, the steward of SNOMED CT, the world’s leading clinical terminology, and the GMDN Agency, a registered UK charity and non-profit organization responsible for the ongoing maintenance of the Global Medical Device Nomenclature (GMDN) – the internationally recognized standard for the naming, classification and categorisation of medical devices in regulatory, supply chain, and post-market environments. Together, the organizations will work to enable a more unified and practical approach to using clinical and regulatory device information across the lifecycle of care.

Under the agreement, the organizations will jointly develop and maintain a GMDN–SNOMED CT Extension, replacing the existing SNOMED CT–GMDN linkage table with a more robust, sustainable, and interoperable solution. The Extension is designed to improve medical device content coverage, quality, and usability while supporting harmonized implementation across health systems, regulators, and industry. It will enable implementers to use the two standards together more easily, offering flexibility in coding choices while reducing duplication and complexity.

“This collaboration is fundamentally about improving how medical device information flows across care delivery, regulation, and oversight,” said SNOMED International CEO Don Sweete. “By strengthening the relationship between SNOMED CT and GMDN, we are helping bridge long-standing gaps between clinical systems and regulatory processes, enabling data captured at the point of care to better support safety monitoring, reporting, and learning at scale.”

The agreement is driven by a shared recognition that health systems increasingly need to bridge the gap between clinical and regulatory medical device data. Stakeholders across care delivery, regulation, and industry require consistent device identification that supports clinical documentation while also enabling regulatory reporting, post-market surveillance, traceability, procurement, and inventory management. The existing separation between clinical terminology and regulatory nomenclature has limited data reuse and interoperability, creating a clear need for a more aligned approach.

Deniz Bruce, CEO of the GMDN Agency, said: “This collaboration marks an important step forward in strengthening how medical device information is used across global health systems to support interoperability. By working closely with SNOMED International, we are ensuring that clinical and regulatory communities can rely on a more aligned, high‑quality source of device data. Our shared goal is to make it easier for healthcare providers, regulators, and industry to work from the same, consistent information—supporting better patient safety, improved traceability, and more effective post‑market surveillance worldwide.”

The collaboration formalizes joint governance, quality oversight, and communications between the two organizations and includes a shared work plan focused on stakeholder engagement, testing with real-world use cases, and the development of guidance to support consistent implementation across settings. The emphasis of the work is on enabling practical, real-world interoperability rather than introducing additional complexity for users.

This initiative also reflects a broader shared commitment to global alignment in health data standards. Both SNOMED International and the GMDN Agency are members of the Joint Initiative Council for Global Health Standardization, where international standards organizations collaborate to reduce fragmentation and advance interoperability across clinical, regulatory, and administrative domains. The collaboration demonstrates how that shared vision can be translated into concrete solutions that support patients, providers, regulators, and industry alike.

SNOMED International and the GMDN Agency will continue to engage their respective communities as the collaboration progresses, sharing updates and opportunities for involvement as milestones are reached.