ISO/TS 22990:2019

Traditional Chinese medicine - Categories of clinical terminological system to support the integration of clinical terms from traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine

This document establishes the core classification framework for the integration of clinical terms from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Western medicine. This structure supports terminology integration in standardized electronic medical records, including professional clinical terms in TCM and Western medicine. Non-technical terms for electronic medical records are also included.

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General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 15-May-2019
• ICS: 01.040.11 - Health care technology (Vocabularies)
• ICS: 11.020.99 - Other standards related to health care in general
• Technical Committee: ISO/TC 249 - Traditional Chinese medicine
• Drafting Committee: ISO/TC 249/JWG 1 - Joint ISO/TC 249 - ISO/TC 215 WG: Informatics
• Parallel Committee: ISO/TC 215 - Health informatics
• Current Stage: 9093 - International Standard confirmed
• Start Date: 06-Feb-2023
• Completion Date: 13-Dec-2025

Overview

ISO/TS 22990:2019 defines a core classification framework to support the integration of clinical terminology from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western medicine. Its purpose is to provide a structured, top-level categorial system for organizing professional and non-technical terms used in standardized electronic medical records (EMR) and other health IT systems. The specification helps ensure TCM and biomedical concepts can be indexed, retrieved and aggregated consistently for clinical care, research and system interoperability.

Key topics

• Core categorial structure: the document establishes 27 top-level categories (for example: Symptom and sign, Pattern, Disease, Physiological structure, Functional system, Medication, Diagnosis, Therapy, Laboratory procedure, Specimen, Health management, Equipment, Healthcare record, Theory and experience, Clinical event, etc.).
• Integration focus: designed to bridge TCM‑specific concepts (e.g., pattern/syndrome identification) with Western medicine clinical terms within a single terminological system.
• EMR applicability: supports both professional clinical terms and non-technical record items used in electronic medical records.
• Terminology engineering foundations: emphasizes class hierarchies, concept systems and the need for categorial structures to manage large term sets.
• Interoperability context: acknowledges existing resources such as SNOMED CT and complements TCM terminology standardization efforts (e.g., ISO 19465).

Practical applications

• EHR / EMR implementation: provides a reference framework for mapping and classifying TCM and biomedical terms in patient records.
• Terminology development: guides terminologists and ontology engineers when constructing computable TCM–Western integrated vocabularies.
• Health IT vendors: use the categorial framework to design data models, search/indexing functions, and clinical decision support that span both medical traditions.
• Hospitals and clinics: standardize documentation for mixed-practice settings (integrative medicine departments, TCM hospitals).
• Research & analytics: enables consistent aggregation and comparison of clinical data across TCM and Western medicine for outcomes research and public health surveillance.
• Regulators and policymakers: inform interoperability and coding policy where integration of traditional and conventional medicine is required.

Who should use this standard

• Health informaticians, terminology specialists, EHR vendors, clinical coders, integrative medicine practitioners, standards bodies and healthcare organizations implementing cross‑discipline clinical documentation and data exchange.

Related standards

• ISO 19465 (standardization of TCM clinical terminology) - complementary reference for TCM term content.
• SNOMED CT - commonly used clinical terminology system referenced for integration and mapping considerations.

Keywords: ISO/TS 22990:2019, traditional Chinese medicine, TCM, clinical terminological system, terminology integration, electronic medical records, EMR, interoperability, SNOMED CT, classification framework.

Standards Content (Sample)

TECHNICAL ISO/TS
SPECIFICATION 22990
First edition
2019-05
Traditional Chinese medicine —
Categories of clinical terminological
system to support the integration of
clinical terms from traditional Chinese
medicine and Western medicine
Reference number
©
ISO 2019
© ISO 2019
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may
be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting
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below or ISO’s member body in the country of the requester.
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ii © ISO 2019 – All rights reserved

Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Categorial structures . 2
4.1 Symptom and sign . 2
4.2 Pattern . 3
4.3 Disease . 3
4.4 Physiological structure . 3
4.5 Functional system . 3
4.6 Medication . 3
4.7 Detection indicator . 3
4.8 Examination objects . 3
4.9 Specimen . 3
4.10 Diagnosis . 3
4.11 Therapy . 4
4.12 Laboratory procedure . 4
4.13 Medicament processing . 4
4.14 Health management . 4
4.15 Equipment (synonym: health device) . 4
4.16 Substance . 4
4.17 Body substance . 4
4.18 Healthcare record . 4
4.19 Theory and experience . 4
4.20 Phrase . 5
4.21 Unit of measurement . 5
4.22 Environment and positioning . 5
4.23 Physical factor . 5
4.24 Organism . 5
4.25 Special concept . 5
4.26 Linkage concept . 5
4.27 Clinical event . 5
5 Diagram of clinical terminological system of integration of TCM and Western
medicine (CTSITCMWM) hierarchical structure . 6
Bibliography . 7
Foreword
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This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 249, Traditional Chinese medicine.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
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iv © ISO 2019 – All rights reserved

Introduction
The clinical terms used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) are distinct from those used in
[29]
healthcare systems based on Western medicine. Although the SNOMED CT has become more
mature and the TCM clinical term framework has already been published, the clinical terms of TCM and
Western medicine are used in combination in real medical records, and therefore cannot and should not
be completely separated. Specific standards are urgently needed to support the increase of computer
applications and electronic communication in healthcare. An encompassing terminological system
is required to support a consistent way of indexing, reserving, retrieving and aggregating TCM and
Western medicine clinical data. The standardization of TCM clinical terminology (ISO 19465) cannot
fully meet the needs of electronic medical record processing for hospitals. The large number of clinical
terms cannot be effectively managed without classification. Development of a categorial framework is a
fundamental requirement for the development of the terminological system.
The objective of this document is to express a core categorial structure of clinical terms of TCM and
Western medicine, based upon existing structures. The development of this document will help existing
users to develop a robust logical clinical terminology system.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION ISO/TS 22990:2019(E)
Traditional Chinese medicine — Categories of clinical
terminological system to support the integration of clinical
terms from traditional Chinese medicine and Western
medicine
1 Scope
This document establishes the core classification framework for the integration of clinical terms from
traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Western medicine. This structure supports terminology
integration in standardized electronic medical records, including professional clinical terms in TCM
and Western medicine. Non-technical terms for electronic medical records are also included.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https: //www .iso .org/obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at http: //www .electropedia .org/
3.1
concept
internal conception, general notion or idea of something
Note 1 to entry: Concepts are not necessarily bound to particular languages. They are, however, influenced by
the social or cultural background often leading to different categorizations.
[SOURCE: ISO/TS 18876-1:2003, 3.1
...