SNOMED CT Tools

The public SNOMED surface consists of four tools: search_snomed_concept, query_snomed_concept, get_snomed_relationships, and query_snomed_mapping.

search_snomed_concept

Search SNOMED concept candidates by English clinical term.

When to use it

Use it first when you only have a text term and do not yet know the concept ID. The tool ranks with BM25 + embeddings, returning the closest concepts semantically rather than only exact literal matches.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description	Example
query	string	Yes	English clinical term	"diabetes mellitus"
limit	integer	No	Result cap (3 by default)	5

What comes back

Each row typically carries concept_id, the FSN, active status, and similarity information — enough to pick the concept to query next.

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query_snomed_concept

Retrieve the concept itself plus its hierarchical context (parents / children) in one call.

When to use it

Use it when you already have a concept ID and want concept details, ancestors, and children together.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description	Example
concept_id	integer	Yes	SNOMED concept ID	73211009
include_parents	boolean	No	Return the ancestor chain, true by default	false
include_children	boolean	No	Return direct child concepts, true by default	false
parent_limit	integer	No	Cap on ancestors expanded, 10 by default	20
child_limit	integer	No	Cap on children expanded, 20 by default	50

What comes back

concept is always present; ancestors, children, and their counts are attached according to the parameters.

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get_snomed_relationships

Query non-IS-A attribute relationships (semantic attributes).

When to use it

Use it to see clinical semantic attributes rather than hierarchy — for example finding site, causative agent, associated morphology, or has active ingredient.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
concept_id	integer	Yes	SNOMED concept ID

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query_snomed_mapping

A single entry point for bidirectional ICD ↔ SNOMED mapping.

Modes

• mode="icd": keyword is treated as an ICD-10 code, returning snomed_concepts.
• mode="snomed": keyword may be a numeric concept ID or an English term.
• Purely numeric: maps directly by concept ID (no embeddings involved)
• Text: performs a SNOMED search for the best concept first, then maps (this step uses embeddings)

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description	Example
mode	string	No	icd or snomed	"icd"
keyword	string	Yes	ICD code, concept ID, or English term	"E11.9", "44054006"