Snowstorm Lite FHIR Terminology Server

A fast FHIR Terminology Server for SNOMED CT with a small memory footprint.

• Use Case
• Features
• Limitations
• Technical Details
• Quick Start
• Try the API with Postman
• Roadmap

Use Case

• Scaling architecture
• Supporting user data input with SNOMED CT driven search where responsiveness is critical
• Using SNOMED CT offline:
  • Locations with poor connectivity and limited machine memory
  • Trusted research environments that are not able to make external API requests
• Not suitable as a national terminology server

Features

• Host a single SNOMED CT Edition with incredible speed
• SNOMED query support using a subset of ECL
• Perfect for search
  • Most relevant results first
  • Supports terminology binding
  • Multiple language support with configurable character folding
• FHIR Terminology Operations
  • CodeSystem lookup
    • Including parents, children, designations, normal form
  • ValueSet expand using SNOMED CT Implicit Value Sets
    • SNOMED CT isa and ecl filters are supported
  • ConceptMap translate using SNOMED CT Implicit Maps

Limitations

• Only supports the FHIR API
• Only ValueSets support create/update/delete
• Only supports one snapshot of the SNOMED CT International Edition at this time
  • Support for other SNOMED CT editions and include multiple language search is planned

Technical Details

• Only supports one SNOMED CT CodeSystem at a time
• Minimal memory footprint is perfect for autoscaling
  • After creating the index the app can run with just 500mb memory
• Self-contained application using Apache Lucene™
• Uses Spring Boot and HAPI FHIR Frameworks
• Requires JDK 17

Quick Start

Choose an admin password and replace yourAdminPassword values in the following commands.

Option 1: Using a SNOMED Syndication Service

If you have access to the SNOMED International MLDS service then Snowstorm Lite can download a release automatically from there.

Run Snowstorm Lite in your local Docker:

docker pull snomedinternational/snowstorm-lite:latest
docker run -i -t -p 8080:8080 --name=snowstorm-lite snomedinternational/snowstorm-lite \
  --admin.password=yourAdminPassword \
  --syndicate --version-uri=http://snomed.info/sct/900000000000207008

Set version-uri to the URI of the SNOMED Edition to be loaded. See SNOMED Edition URI Examples.

The console will ask for the syndication service username and password before downloading the relevant packages and building the index. By default the SNOMED International MLDS feed is used, this uses the same credentials as MLDS. The feed URL can be changed using the syndication.url configuration option.

Then Snowstorm Lite will be ready for use! The FHIR interface is here: http://localhost:8080/fhir.

Option 2: Using a SNOMED Archive File

If you have access to a SNOMED CT Edition release archive this can be imported.

Run Snowstorm Lite in your local Docker:

docker pull snomedinternational/snowstorm-lite:latest
docker run -p 8080:8080 --name=snowstorm-lite snomedinternational/snowstorm-lite \
  --admin.password=yourAdminPassword

Upload a SNOMED CT package:

curl -u admin:yourAdminPassword \
  --form file=@SnomedCT_InternationalRF2_PRODUCTION_20240101T120000Z.zip \
  --form version-uri="http://snomed.info/sct/900000000000207008/version/20240101" \
  http://localhost:8080/fhir-admin/load-package

---

Importing a SNOMED CT release takes about 5 minutes.

When the import is complete Snowstorm Lite will be ready for use! The FHIR interface is here: http://localhost:8080/fhir.

It is possible to import extension or derivative packages.

It is also possible to deploy as a Java application, without Docker.

Postman

This Postman collection allows you to try the various API functions of the Snowstorm Lite server. It's similar to a Swagger UI.
You will need a local Snowstorm Lite instance running.

Roadmap

• Nothing currently planned.

Full ECL support is not planned. Snowstorm Lite supports the most often used ECL features without the full complexity and memory demands of the complete ECL specification.