The HSE Central Terminology Service (CTS)

The Data Standards Team, as part of the National Release Centre for SNOMED and the CDAO in Technology and Transformation are launching the Central Terminology Service

The Central Terminology Service was procured by the HSE in July 2025 and deployed over Q3 2025 and Q1 2026.

The Central Terminology Server is a central platform that stores, manages and distributes standardised healthcare terminologies such as The Irish Edition of  SNOMED CT and  LOINC via an API. It ensures that when different healthcare systems record information, they are all using the same agreed codes and definitions, allowing data to be shared, understood and analysed consistently across the health service. The CTS also has the capability to distribute other HSE agreed standards and code systems.

The HSE Central Terminology Service (CTS) provides Ireland's national solution for terminology management. Built on Ontoserver and using HL7 FHIR standards, it gives healthcare organisations, software vendors and developers a single, trusted source for healthcare terminologies through both a user-friendly browser interface and APIs.

Currently available in the CTS are the Irish edition of SNOMED CT including Medicines, Loinc and Unified Code for Units of Measure (UCUM)

Also available are all the refsets as developed by the Irish National Release Center for SNOMED

Why use the CTS?

• Improved interoperability – Ensures different systems speak the same language, enabling seamless information sharing across healthcare organisations.
• Single source of truth – Access nationally approved code systems, value sets and concept maps from one central repository.
• Simplified integration – Standards-based FHIR APIs make it easier for existing and new systems to adopt healthcare terminologies.
• Better data quality – Standardised coding improves consistency, reporting, analytics and clinical decision-making.
• Reduced maintenance burden – Automated terminology updates and managed service support remove the complexity of maintaining terminology content locally.
• Future-ready platform – Supports SNOMED CT, LOINC and additional terminologies.
• The HSE has the capability to standardise all data for health information systems centrally, have them clinically validated for each use case and make this data available via an API

The CTS allows healthcare organisations and suppliers to focus on delivering care rather than managing terminology infrastructure, while ensuring data is standardised, interoperable and ready for advanced analytics, research and digital health innovation.

For further information please see HERE or by email at: DataAndInformationStandards@hse.ie