Finding SNOMED-CT codes which are QOF

NHS Spine & APIs Support
1

Hello,

With the UK SNOMED-CT dataset, the current approach we’ve taken with identifying if a particular SNOMED-CT code is part of QOF (quality and outcomes framework) is by doing a similarity search on a set. This set contains QOF-like SNOMED-CT codes that we manually curated.

I was wondering if there is a tell-tale way to know if a particular SNOMED-CT code is part of QOF (i.e. a property as straightforward as active, which takes 0 or 1).

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks in advance,

Faraz

2

Might be a question to pose on https://developer.community.nhs.uk/

In theory this should be available via an API on NHS Terminology Server https://digital.nhs.uk/services/terminology-server
and should be an API call to ask if CONCEPT is in ValueSet (I am presuming ValueSet = ReferenceSet, they look similar to me).

This is the operation I’d probably want to run. Valueset-operation-validate-code - FHIR v5.0.0

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What I’m doing for a supplier though is a mix of:

  • asking the GP to give me codelists (valuesets)
  • looking at PRSB to see if it has a relevant standard. These often include QOF codes or ECL statements which I use with the term server API above.
  • look at https://www.opencodelists.org/

I then create ValueSets or Templates e.g. Vital Signs - Patient Care Coordination (PCC) Implementation Guide v0.1.1-current

I would like something like you suggested.

1 Like
4

The formal definition of QOF is in the business rules here (this is v50 relating to FY2526): https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-collections/quality-and-outcomes-framework-qof/business-rules/quality-and-outcomes-framework-qof-business-rules-v50-2025

These contain the exact logic to be applied and also the relevant SNOMED CT codesets. Only by applying these rules can you tell definitively Yes/No for QOF.

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5

The QOF refsets are part of the Primary Care Domain reference sets release, available on TRUD here: Primary Care Domain reference sets – NHS TRUD

There’s also a portal to look at for these as well: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-collections/quality-and-outcomes-framework-qof/quality-and-outcome-framework-qof-business-rules/primary-care-domain-reference-set-portal

But as @henrydwright says, you always need to full business rules to fully understand.

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Is also this answer Finding SNOMED-CT codes which are QOF - API Platform - NHS England Developer Community

My need is more around data capture, so when we need to enter X, we often need the concept qof defined. Some pick lists will be qof refsets. Rules is more for gp systems and users.

it’s also useful if we need to search a gp system for concepts. The api we have is basic.