Terminology Fundamentals, published by HL7 International / Terminology Infrastructure. This guide is not an authorized publication; it is the continuous build for version 0.1.0 built by the FHIR (HL7® FHIR® Standard) CI Build. This version is based on the current content of https://github.com/HL7/terminology-fundamentals-ig/ and changes regularly. See the Directory of published versions

Background

Page standards status: Informative

The objective of this Terminology Fundamentals guide is is to document the basic principles of terminology that are used and described across HL7 published standards. This guide highlights terminology basics previously published in HL7 standards while maintaining a product family agnostic approach. The IG serves as an educational reference for those wishing to learn more about terminology across HL7, but it is not intended to provide implementation specific guidance, as other resources exist for that purpose.

Terminology Fundamentals includes information from "Core Principles and Properties of HL7 Version 3 Models, Release 2" primarily from "Chapter 5: Coded Model Elements and their Vocabularies", but not limited to this chapter. While this retired specification (as of 2022) is focused on the HL7 Version 3 standard and the Reference Information Model (RIM), Terminology Fundamentals does not focus V3 specific references. HL7 has advanced significantly since the publication of "Core Principles and Properties of HL7 Version 3 Models, Release 2" and therefore the presentation of the material has been generalized for use by all HL7 implementers. However, the spirit of the original specification remains and provides the basis for this guide.

Terminology Fundamentals also integrates information from "Characteristics of a Value Set Definition, Release 1". This standard is active (reaffirmed in 2023) and describes how to create an HL7 conformant value set. "Characteristics of a Value Set Definition, Release 1" refers to "Core Principles and Properties of HL7 Version 3 Models, Release 2" as a prerequisite and references the definitions and ideas described by Core Principles. This made the two standards ideal candidates to be merged into one cross-paradigm informative IG to provide terminology fundamental knowledge to the HL7 community.

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