Appendix

Acknowledgements

Primary Author

  • Thomas Beale, Ars Semantica, UK; openEHR International Board.

Contributors

This specification has benefited from input from the openEHR and wider health informatics community. The openEHR Foundation would like to recognise the following people and institutions.

  • Sebastian Garde PhD, Ocean Informatics

  • Heather Leslie MD, Ocean Informatics

  • Ian McNicoll MD, MSc, Ocean Informatics UK

  • Martin van der Meer, Code24, Netherlands

  • David Moner PhD, Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain

  • Erik Sundvall PhD, Linkoping University, Sweden

  • Sebastian Iancu, Code24, Netherlands

Trademarks

  • 'openEHR' is a registered trademark of The openEHR Foundation

  • 'SNOMED CT' is a registered trademark of IHTSDO

Supporters

The work reported in this paper has been funded by the following organisations:

Grammar is expressed in EBNF; terminal classes such as V_ALPHANUMERIC_NAME are given as regular expressions. Class, type and attribute names use the openEHR conventions, i.e. TYPE_NAME, Primitive_type_name and attribute_name.

Conformance

Conformance of a data or software artifact to an openEHR specification is determined by a formal test of that artifact against the relevant openEHR Implementation Technology Specification(s) (ITSs), such as an IDL interface or an XML-schema. Since ITSs are formal derivations from underlying models, ITS conformance indicates model conformance.

Tools

Various tools exist for creating and processing archetypes. The ADL Workbench is a reference compiler, visualiser and editor. The openEHR tools can be downloaded from the website. Source projects can be found at the openEHR Github project.

Amendment Record

Issue Details Raiser, Implementer Completed

BASE Release 1.3.0 (unreleased)

1.0.0

SPECBASE-50: Relocate the AM Archetype Identification specification (issue 0.7.9, AM Release 2.3.0) to the BASE component as the Artefact Identification specification. Addresses SPECPR-463.

S Iancu

10 Oct 2026

Name TEMPLATE_ID (Base Types) among the identifier types of the scheme; its value should be an HRID (SPECBASE-42).

S Iancu

10 Oct 2026

Follow AOM2 issue 2.4.2: the namespace of ARCHETYPE_HRID is mandatory, and physical_id returns an Hrid (SPECBASE-50, SPECAM-103).

S Iancu

10 Oct 2026

Correct editorial defects carried over from the AM document: restore a truncated lifecycle rule, fix typos, the ODIN example syntax and date, the AQL example quotes and the identifier lengths in the optimisation example (SPECBASE-50).

S Iancu

10 Oct 2026

Preface: state where the document came from, use the BASE feedback channel and the current titles of related documents; add missing external-link markers; use sectnums; add the BASE release row to this record (SPECBASE-50).

S Iancu

10 Oct 2026

Make the merged chapters consistent: the complete ADL 2 identifier carries the full version, while reduced-precision forms are references; release_version is the three-part numeric version; references from data use the complete identifier (archetype_ver_ref = hrid); the namespace rules for references are stated once; the build count after -rc is optional; replace the outdated terms 'extension', 'miniHRID' and 'instance UID'; data examples use full versions (SPECBASE-50).

S Iancu

10 Oct 2026

Every artefact is assigned a namespace at creation (that of its creating organisation, e.g. a vendor); the namespace no longer distinguishes managed from unmanaged artefacts, and is never omitted, wildcarded or inferred in an identifier. Only legacy (ADL 1.4) identifiers have no namespace. Add a vendor namespace example (SPECBASE-50).

I McNicoll,
S Iancu

10 Oct 2026

Align the identifying properties with the AOM2 ARCHETYPE_HRID and the BASE Resource Model: rm_package, version_status (BASE VERSION_STATUS), build_count, semantic_id; the machine identifier uid from AUTHORED_RESOURCE and the per-build build_uid of AUTHORED_ARCHETYPE (SPECBASE-50).

S Iancu

10 Oct 2026

References from data: the identifier recorded in data is the complete ARCHETYPE_ID (namespace and full version); legacy ADL 1.4 identifiers remain valid and are not read as abbreviated three-part versions (SPECBASE-35, SPECPR-474).

S Iancu

10 Oct 2026

Align the reference grammar (hrid_ref and the interface, specific interface and physical tiers) with the ADL 2 ARCHETYPE_REF token: numeric version parts only, a pre-release version being referenced by its full identifier. State that a namespace is never a wildcard, and when a reference may omit it (SPECBASE-50).

S Iancu

10 Oct 2026

Replace the version identifier grammar by the HRID version grammar aligned with the ADL 2 base lexer: reduced-precision version_id, full release_version, -beta modifier, optional build_count after a pre-release modifier (replacing extension and issue_number) (SPECBASE-50).

S Iancu,
J Holslag

10 Oct 2026

Replace the identifier grammar by the HRID grammar aligned with the ADL 2 base lexer: a namespaced modern (ADL 2) form and a legacy (ADL 1.4) form, rm_package instead of rm_closure; remove the statement that it simplifies the ARCHETYPE_ID grammar; add an informative regular expression (SPECBASE-50, SPECPR-363).

S Iancu

10 Oct 2026

Generalise the purpose and scope from archetypes to knowledge artefacts; state the BASE computable types (Hrid, ARCHETYPE_ID) and the location of the machine identifier (AUTHORED_RESOURCE.uid) (SPECBASE-50).

S Iancu

10 Oct 2026

AM Release 2.3.0

0.7.9

SPECPUB-7: Convert citations to bibtex form.

T Beale

15 Dec 2019

0.7.8

SPECAM-58. Correct errors and improve examples - S Garde review Nov 2018. Change instance_uid to build_uid.

S Garde

18 Nov 2018

AM Release 2.2.0

AM Release 2.1.0

0.7.7

SPECAM-52Improve explanation of version number progression in section 4.2; correct version identifier grammar (addresses SPECPR-254).

E Sundvall

13 Feb 2018

Correct formatting, re-instate Archetype model diagram at start of section 3.

T Beale

28 Jan 2018

0.7.6

SPECAM-41. Correct 'unstable' to 'alpha'; correct version-related typo; update versioning incrementing rules.

S Garde

18 Jun 2017

AM Release 2.0.6

0.7.5

Replace '-unstable' with '-alpha' to be compatible with typical tools.

I McNicoll

01 Feb 2015

0.7.4

Replace '+uNNN' with '-unstable'; simplify the number after 'rc' to an integer build count.

S Garde,
I McNicoll,
H Leslie

29 Sep 2014

0.7.3

Remove build_count, replace with build_uid.

I McNicoll
T Beale

28 May 2014

0.7.2

Change ARCHEYTPE_HRID.commit_number to instance_uid. Build_count reset to 1 on each version change. Adjust diagrams and explanations.

S Garde
I McNicoll
T Beale

21 May 2014

0.7.1

Simplify development state in lifecycle; merge 'initial' and rename 'draft'.

S Garde
I McNicoll

09 May 2014

0.7.0

Rewrite referencing section; update 'problem description; further grammar improvements.

T Beale

20 Jun 2013

0.6.5

Remove errors and ambiguities to do with explanation of human readable identifier; improve nomenclature; rewrite grammar.

T Beale

15 Jun 2013

0.6.0

Major update based on CKM clinical group analysis, and feedback from the CIMI and openEHR communities.

S Garde
H Leslie
I McNicoll
T Beale

21 Apr 2013

0.2.0

Refinements to do with template identification.
Review from Medical Centrum Alkmaar (Netherlands).

T Beale
M van der Meer

01 Feb 2010

0.1.0

Initial Writing.

T Beale

09 Jul 2009