Health informatics – Categorial structure for terminological systems of human anatomy

This document defines the characteristics required to describe the organisation and content of human anatomy within a terminological system. It is designed primarily for use with computer-based applications such as clinical electronic health records, in decision support and for various biomedical research purposes.

The standard is intended to facilitate the construction of new terminological systems in a regular form which will increase their coherence and expressiveness, increase the consistency and coherence of existing terminological systems and facilitate the convergence of human anatomy terms in terminological systems. It does not provide categorial structure for developmental anatomy (e.g. prenatal development, postnatal growth and ageing).

The intended audience includes designers of healthcare terminological categorial structures, developers of healthcare terminological systems and developers of information systems that require an explicit representation of healthcare terminological systems. It is not suitable for use by individual clinicians or hospital administrators.

Main sections:

· Scope

· Terms and definitions

· Categorial structure for terminologies of human anatomy description

· Conformance

· Annex A: A reference ontology for biomedical informatics: The Foundational Model of Anatomy