Table 5
General Process of Maintaining Domain Specifications13
| 1. The specification of vocabulary domains and vocabulary domain harmonization will be patterned after the RIM harmonization process and will happen in conjunction with RIM harmonization meetings. |
| 2. At least two Vocabulary Technical Committee members will be appointed as vocabulary facilitators to the message development Technical Committees by the co-chairs of the vocabulary Technical Committee and approved by the co-chairs of the relevant message development Technical Committee. People with a special interest may also be appointed to be the stewards of specific tables. |
| 3. For vocabulary domains that are shared by more than one message development Technical Committee, a single Technical Committee will be chosen as steward, with all interested parties having an opportunity to provide input, following the harmonization rules adopted for shared RIM projects. |
| 4. The message development Technical Committees have the ultimate responsibility to define the vocabulary domains referenced by the RIM objects for which they are the stewards. |
| 5. The vocabulary facilitators have the responsibility to see that good vocabulary practices are followed and to physically maintain the vocabulary domain specification database according to the definitions provided by the Technical Committees. |
| 6. Any new concepts created by Health Level 7 (HL7) Technical Committees will be submitted to HL7-registered terminology developers for potential inclusion in the standard terminologies. |
| 7. All HL7-registered terminology providers are welcome to provide mappings to HL7 domains using their terms and codes. The terminology providers are responsible for mapping their concepts to the concepts in the domain. Any proprietary terminologies used in HL7 specifications or interfaces must be properly licensed according to the licensing policies of the terminology provider. |
