ISO 13940:2015

Overview

ISO 13940:2015 - Health informatics: System of concepts to support continuity of care defines a consistent, conceptual framework for representing the core elements of healthcare delivery. The standard describes a system of concepts (actors, matters, activities, processes, planning, time and responsibilities) that supports representation of both clinical content and clinical context. ISO 13940:2015 is explicitly a conceptual (not implementation) model intended as a common basis for semantic interoperability across international, national and local information systems.

Key topics and technical scope

ISO 13940:2015 addresses concept definitions and models for the information viewpoint of healthcare systems. Important technical topics include:

• Healthcare actors - roles such as subject of care, healthcare provider, next-of-kin and third parties.
• Healthcare matters - concepts such as health issues, health conditions, observed or potential conditions, and health states.
• Activities and processes - clinical processes, provider and self-care activities, activity directories and automated activities.
• Planning and care plans - uniprofessional and multiprofessional care plans, core care plans, clinical guidelines, goals and activity bundles.
• Time and episodes - health-related periods, activity periods, clinical process episodes and episodes of care.
• Responsibilities and mandates - mandates, consent, authorization, and roles supporting continuity of care.
• Information management - conceptual definitions used whenever structured healthcare information is specified; supports development of logical reference models.

The standard provides comprehensive concept definitions at the conceptual level only and is designed to feed into logical reference models used for semantic interoperability.

Practical applications and who uses it

ISO 13940:2015 is used where accurate, semantically consistent representation of healthcare information is essential:

• Health informatics architects and system designers building EHRs, clinical registries and health information exchanges.
• Standards developers and implementers creating logical reference models, information models and terminologies.
• Healthcare organizations and policy makers specifying requirements for continuity of care, care planning and care coordination.
• Vendors and integrators aiming for cross‑system semantic interoperability and consistent clinical context representation.
• Researchers and clinical informaticians working on process modeling, quality measurement and care pathway analysis.

Related standards

ISO 13940:2015 complements other health informatics and interoperability standards by providing the conceptual vocabulary and process-centered viewpoint needed to align clinical content and context across systems. It is typically used as a foundational reference when developing or mapping more detailed, implementable information models.