ISO/TS 16843-6:2022

Overview

ISO/TS 16843-6:2022 - Health informatics: Categorial structures for representation of acupuncture - Part 6: Acupuncture effects defines a formal categorial structure to represent acupuncture effects in health informatics. The specification establishes a set of domain constraints - each composed of a semantic link and an applicable characterizing category - to make descriptions of acupuncture outcomes explicit and machine-interpretable. It addresses inconsistent or insufficient reporting in clinical and experimental acupuncture studies by providing a common semantic framework for annotation and data exchange.

Key topics

• Categorial structure and scope: Specifies minimal domain constraints for representing concepts in the acupuncture effects field (semantic link + characterizing category).
• Characterizing categories: Defines categories relevant to acupuncture effects, such as acupuncture therapy, needling method, acupuncture point, anatomical structure, disorder, biological process (and subtypes like cellular process, metabolic process, developmental process), gene expression, molecular function, and endogenous ligand.
• Semantic links: Formal directed relations used to associate concepts. Examples included in the document are:
  • Applied to (therapy → acupuncture point)
  • Located in (gene expression → anatomical structure)
  • Part of (cellular component → anatomical structure)
  • Regulates, Occurs in, Has participant, Binds (and their inverses)
• Formal representation: UML diagram and formal concept representation aligned with ISO 17115 principles to enable structured terminology and ontology mapping.

Applications

• Clinical research reporting: Standardizes how acupuncture effects are described in experimental and clinical reports, improving clarity and reproducibility.
• Data annotation and integration: Supports consistent tagging of study results (e.g., gene expression changes, physiological responses) to enable meta-analysis and evidence synthesis.
• Health informatics & EHRs: Facilitates interoperability between electronic health records, clinical decision support systems, and registries that include acupuncture treatments and outcomes.
• Ontology and terminology development: Provides a scaffold for vocabulary builders, biomedical ontologists, and terminology services integrating Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) concepts with biomedical data.

Who should use this standard

• Health informatics professionals, EHR and clinical data system developers
• Acupuncture researchers and clinical trialists
• Biomedical ontologists, terminology teams, and standards implementers
• Regulatory and academic organizations working on acupuncture evidence synthesis

Related standards and access

ISO/TS 16843-6:2022 is part of the ISO 16843 series and was developed by ISO/TC 215 (Health informatics) in collaboration with ISO/TC 249 (Traditional Chinese medicine). For the full text and implementation guidance, obtain the official document from the ISO website or your national standards body.