This guide is intended to document principal ideas which are necessary and sufficient to assign value to health classification. This guide shall serve governments, funding agencies, terminology developers, terminology integration organizations, and the purchasers and users of this classification system toward improved terminological development and recognition of value in classification. This international standard will also provide classification developers and authors with the quality guidelines needed to construct useful, maintainable classifications. It is applicable to all areas of health about which information is kept or utilized, and is intended to complement and utilize those notions already identified by other national and international standards bodies. These tenets do not attempt to specify all of the richness which can be incorporated into a classification. However, this standard does specify the minimal requirements, which if not adhered to will assure that the classification will have limited generalizability and will be very difficult if not impossible to maintain.

1.1 This international standard is intended to document principal ideas which are necessary and sufficient to assign value to a classification. The standard will serve as a guide for governments, funding agencies, terminology developers, terminology integration organizations, and the purchasers and users of classification systems toward improved terminological development and recognition of value in a classification. It is applicable to all areas of health about which information is kept or utilized. Appropriately, classifications should be evaluated within the context of their stated scope and purpose. It is intended to complement and utilize those notions already identified by other national and international standards bodies. This standard explicitly refers only to classifications. This international standard will also provide classification developers and authors with the quality guidelines needed to construct useful, maintainable classifications. These tenets do not attempt to specify all of the richness which can be incorporated into a classification. However, this standard does specify the minimal requirements, which if not adhered to will assure that the classification will have limited generalizability and will be very difficult if not impossible to maintain. We have used the word "Shall" to indicate mandatory requirements and the word "Should" to indicate those requirements which we feel are desirable but may not be widely achievable in current implementations. Classifications, which do not currently meet these criteria, can be in compliance with this standard by putting in place mechanisms to move toward these goals. This standard will provide classification developers with a sturdy starting point for the development of useful classifications. This foundation serves as the basis from which classification developers will build robust concept systems.