Overview
ISO 13606-3:2019 - part of the ISO 13606 series - defines reference archetypes and term lists for Electronic Health Record (EHR) communication. It specifies a standardized means to communicate part or all of an EHR between EHR systems, repositories, clinical applications, middleware (e.g., decision support), personal health apps/devices, or within federated record systems. Part 3 complements the ISO 13606-1 Reference Model by providing the controlled term lists and reference archetypes needed to represent commonly occurring EHR data consistently during exchange.
Key Topics
- Term lists: Normative lists that define permitted values for specific attributes of the ISO 13606-1 Reference Model (for example, subject categories, version status, modes, link descriptions, null flavours, integrity algorithms).
- Reference archetypes: Normative and informative archetypes representing frequently occurring EHR data structures (demographics, clinical concepts, medicinal products, access policy, null_flavor, etc.).
- Demographic and clinical structures: Includes archetypes for person, organization, addresses, identifiers, healthcare personnel, healthcare activity participation, health conditions, dosages, and clinical contexts.
- Contsys-based clinical information structures: Guidance for constructing clinical reference information structures and compound clinical documents using Contsys principles and reuseable clusters.
- Conformance: Requirements and guidance for implementers to conform to the defined term lists and archetypes when exchanging EHR data.
- Interoperability focus: Emphasis on consistent structure and semantics for reliable EHR communication across systems.
Applications
ISO 13606-3:2019 is practical for:
- EHR vendors and system integrators implementing interoperable data exchange formats between systems and centralized repositories.
- Health IT architects and implementers designing APIs, middleware, and decision-support integrations that need standardized EHR payloads.
- Health information exchanges (HIEs) and federated record systems to represent and aggregate patient data consistently.
- Clinical informaticians and standards teams developing archetypes for clinical content, demographic data, or medicinal product representation.
- App and device developers building personal health applications or medical devices that exchange EHR data with clinical systems.
Using ISO 13606-3 helps reduce ambiguity in EHR content, speeds integration, and supports semantic interoperability for clinical and administrative workflows.
Related Standards
- ISO 13606-1 (Reference Model) - foundational model whose attributes are constrained by Part 3 term lists.
- ISO 13606 (series) - broader guidance on EHR communication.
- ISO 21090 - referenced for demographic-related datatypes (as used in Part 3 demographic archetypes).