ISO/TS 16843-1:2016

TECHNICAL ISO/TS
SPECIFICATION 16843-1
First edition
2016-11-15
Health informatics — Categorial
structures for representation of
acupuncture —
Part 1:
Acupuncture points
Informatique de santé — Structures catégoriques pour la
représentation de l’acupuncture —
Partie 1: Points d'acupuncture
Reference number
©
ISO 2016
© ISO 2016, Published in Switzerland
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ii © ISO 2016 – All rights reserved

Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 2
3 Terms and definitions . 2
4 Categorial structure . 8
4.1 Outline . 8
4.2 Characterizing categories . 9
4.2.1 Point location . 9
4.2.2 Clinical findings.10
4.2.3 Efficacy .10
4.3 Semantic links .10
4.3.1 identifies .10
4.3.2 locates .11
4.3.3 is_located_at .11
4.3.4 is_used_for_clinical_outcome_of .11
4.4 Additional links.11
5 Conformance .11
5.1 Conformance principles .11
5.2 Conformity to this document .12
5.3 Supplemental recommendation .12
Annex A (normative) Selected terms and definitions from ISO 17115:2007 .13
Annex B (normative) Selected terms and definitions from ISO 1087‑1:2000 .19
Annex C (normative) Selected terms and definitions from ISO 16278:2016 .26
Annex D (informative) Sample diagrams of life force flow channel and acupuncture points .30
Bibliography .32
Foreword
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The committee responsible for this document is Technical Committee ISO/TC 215, Health informatics.
A list of all parts in the ISO 16843 series can be found on the ISO website.
iv © ISO 2016 – All rights reserved

Introduction
Acupuncture therapy originated from scrubbing or pressing sensitive areas on the body surface. Wood
stick or stone was primarily used as a stimulation tool, then, in the course of improvement, needling
was gradually developed. Today, those points or zones are used not only in acupuncture practices but
also in other kinds of intervention such as acupressure, moxibustion, cupping, or classic massage. New
acupuncture points, such as auricular points and oral acupuncture points, have also been discovered in
diverse practice of acupuncture.
The practice of traditional medicine is still the subject of scientific criticism. However, it is well known
that there is a certain amount of contemporary scientific papers or reports on the interventions using
acupuncture points showing considerable therapeutic effects.
[10][11]
Thus in the last two decades, many clinical trials have been conducted to prove efficacy, and
a large number of research projects on the mechanism of acupuncture have been undertaken using
modern scientific methodology. Among various medical domains and countries/regions, there can be
[3][4][5]
found a lot of synonyms and polysemes impeding meta-analysis, accurate information exchange,
data processing and knowledge acquisition related to the principles and practice of acupuncture.
[2][3][4][5]
In order to solve these problems, it is essential to prepare definite concept system for the
[2]
representation of acupuncture points, with concept harmonization. The resultant categorial
structure will support the development of reliable terminological systems, information models and/or
mapping among terminological resources.
It is notable that even in the countries with high GDP, only a small portion of the population can receive
modern medicine service at will. Also, the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office reports that a high
[23]
percentage of the population uses traditional medicine in the nations within the region. These are
the reasons why the WHO is trying to explore ways of collecting statistical data not only depending on
modern medicine concepts but also the concepts of traditional medicines.
As expected, the accuracy of statistics is dependent upon consistent and agreed terms and definitions
[1][2][3][4][5]
harmonized with the backbone of a concept system.
For these two reasons, there is a strong need for common conceptual model regarding acupuncture points.
There are many different medical domains such as modern medicine, traditional Chinese medicine,
Ayurveda and Thai medicine, and their concept systems also vary. If the concepts of each medical
domain are represented in different conceptual models, it will be difficult to find the common elements
among them. It means mapping or semantic correspondence among terminological resources will be
costly and potentially error prone. In turn, such situation causes obstruction of knowledge management
and acquisition.
[5]
It has been estimated that between 0,5 and 45 million concepts are needed to be adequately described
in acupuncture. There is no intention to specify conceptual models for each as international standards.
[1][2][3][4][5]
Instead, the concepts with similarities have been harmonized at a high level in this document.
With a categorial structure, the minimum elements for common descriptiveness, exchangeability,
accountability, reproducibility, and verification necessary for representation of acupuncture points of
various medical domains are defined.
Any specific characteristics needed in a specific medical domain should be specified in the projects
of other technical committees and domestic or international organizations, along with their specific
values or code systems.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION ISO/TS 16843-1:2016(E)
Health informatics — Categorial structures for
representation of acupuncture —
Part 1:
Acupuncture points
1 Scope
This document specifies the categorial structure within the subject field of acupuncture by defining
a set of domain constraints of sanctioned characteristics each composed of a semantic link and an
applicable characterizing category in order to represent the concept of acupuncture point.
This document describes sanctioned characteristics with semantic links and characterizing
categories for representation of acupuncture points. Concepts of acupuncture points are used in
clinical practices for applying stimulation such as insertion, pricking, scratching, scrubbing, massaging
or pressing with various kinds of needles, moxibustion, acupressure and cupping in various medical
domains.
The potential uses for this conceptual framework are the following:
— provide a conceptual framework for the generation of compositional concept representation of
acupuncture point;
— provide a core model to describe the structure of acupuncture point, and facilitate improved
semantic correspondence with information models;
— facilitate the mapping and semantic correspondence between different terminological resources
by proposing with a core specification of acupuncture point;
— support developers of new terminological systems concerning acupuncture point;
— support developers of new detailed content areas of existing terminological resources concerning
acupuncture point to ensure conformance;
— facilitate the representation of acupuncture point in a manner suitable for computer processing;
— provide the monitoring system for adverse events and adverse reactions;
— provide the characterization of clinical research related to acupuncture point.
The target groups for this document are the following:
— developers of terminology systems acupuncture point;
— developers of information systems that require a structured framework of concepts to facilitate
implementation and communication;
— informaticians, analysts and epidemiologists who require common models of knowledge to facilitate
analysis of current and legacy data from one or more information systems;
— clinicians and coders to provide greater consistency in structure and organization when entering
and retrieving data using one or more terminological resources;
— managers and administrative personnel in providing a benchmark by which to judge terminology
and information system solutions: as to whether the potential options will deliver compatibility
with legacy data and future proofing to emerging terminology products.
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