Health informatics — Guidelines for terminology development organizations

Healthcare terminological systems (terminologies) are developed to support accurate representation, communication and analysis of information about the healthcare of individuals and populations.

This document specifies the principles and processes that should be followed by developers of healthcare terminologies to support international healthcare terminology standardisation. It complements standards such as ISO 17115 and ISO 17117 (which address the content of terminologies) by specifying good governance requirements for the lifecycle of those terminologies.

The target audience for this document includes organisations that develop terminologies, and those who review these organisations and evaluate the terminology services and products they maintain.

Main sections:

· Scope

· Main purpose

· Conformance

· Healthcare terminology standardisation: organisations and process

· Principles

· Application in healthcare terminology standards development organisations

· Evaluation