1.1 This specification updates a standard representation for storing and organizing the heterogeneous information contained in clinical practice guidelines. This specification is intended to facilitate translation of natural-language guideline documents into a format that can be processed by computers. It can be used to represent document content throughout the entire guideline life cycle. Information at both high and low levels of abstraction can be accommodated. This specification is based on the guideline elements model (GEM) created at the Yale Center for Medical Informatics and designed to serve as a comprehensive XML-based guideline document representation.

1.2 This specification refers to and makes use of recommendations from the World Wide Web consortium, the W3C.

1.3 Standard Guideline Schema - This specification defines a standard Schema for clinical practice guidelines. The Schema is included in Annex A1.

1.4 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory requirements prior to use.