Use to record information about the initiation and overall management of a standardised care pathway for a specific condition or treatment. This is achieved by recording relevant data about individual events in the management of the pathway, with each event represented by a single careflow step in this archetype.
The scope of this archetype includes, but is not limited to the initiation and overall management of standardised pathways for any type of acute, chronic or preventive management, across medical, surgical, nursing and multidisciplinary domains. For example:
- Cancer care pathways, for example post-surgical instillation treatment for bladder cancer
- Perioperative pathways, for example total hip replacement
- Mental health pathways, for example anorexia treatment pathway
- Vaccination schedules, for example 0-5 childhood vaccination schedule
- Chronic disease protocols, for example diabetes management
- Nursing care pathways, for example pressure ulcer prevention or wound care pathway
In this archetype, the terms "care pathway" and "care plan" are used to mean the following:
- Care pathway: A care pathway (sometimes referred to as a clinical pathway) is a standardised knowledge resource describing a care process for a specific condition or treatment, commonly with a predetermined start and end. A care pathway may be informed by clinical guidelines, and the interventions or other activities recommended may be operationalised as a care plan. A care pathway is equivalent to a ContSys (ISO 13940) clinical pathway.
- Care plan: A care plan or treatment plan is tailored to a specific individual, often based on one or more care pathways, is usually dynamic and updated as the individual's condition changes. Plans are often developed collaboratively between the individual and their healthcare team, and oriented around specific goals, interventions and evaluations.
For multi-phase pathways, where a single overarching pathway contains distinct predefined phases, this archetype may be used to record the overall pathway, for example an entire oncology protocol. In addition, separate instances of this archetype may also be used to track the lifecycle status of each phase, for example neoadjuvant therapy, surgery, and adjuvant therapy.
Organisation: DIPS AS
Email: bna@dips.no
Date originally authored: 2015-06-20
Organisation: DIPS AS
Email: bna@dips.no
Date originally authored: 2015-06-20
- Licence: This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.
- Custodian Organisation: openEHR Norway
- References: International Organization for Standardization. Health informatics - System of concepts to support continuity of care; ISO 13940:2015 [Internet]. Geneva: ISO; 2015 [cited 2026 May 18]. Available from: https://www.iso.org/standard/58362.html
- Current Contact: Silje Ljosland Bakke
- Original Namespace: no.openehr
- Original Publisher: openEHR Norway
- Custodian Namespace: no.openehr
- MD5-CAM-1.0.1: 74C5628F2652AE9CB159DADCB12B9CBC
- Build Uid: 709d74de-63c2-43c0-9003-a5e44e06f198
- Revision: 1.0.0
For example: 'Breast cancer pathway' or 'STEMI pathway'. Coding of the care pathway name with a terminology is preferred, where possible.
This data element is intended to capture the reason for any divergence from the ordered care pathway, such as 'Postponed' due to 'Patient was too unwell', or 'Cancelled' due to 'Patient changed their mind'. It is not necessary to record the reason for every care flow step that is carried out as ordered. Note: The clinical indication for triggering the care pathway should be recorded using the INSTRUCTION.care_pathway_order archetype.
Current state: planned
Current state: scheduled
Current state: postponed
Current state: cancelled
Current state: active
Current state: active
Current state: suspended
Current state: aborted
Current state: completed
This element identifies this specific care pathway order, not the pathway template or protocol itself. It may be used to group all related ACTION and INSTRUCTION compositions belonging to the same patient's care pathway order. The identifier may be issued externally, for example by a national pathway registry or a referring organisation. Multiple occurrences allow more than one identifier to be recorded simultaneously if required.
Choice of:
Identifier
Text
For example: an oncology protocol pathway may be the parent of a neoadjuvant therapy pathway.
For example: local information requirements; or additional metadata to align with FHIR.
Include:
All not explicitly excluded archetypes
Silje Ljosland Bakke, Helse Vest IKT AS, Norway (openEHR Editor)
SB Bhattacharyya, Bhattacharyyas Clinical Records Research & Informatics LLP, India
Tara Bonet Chinillach, Catalan Health Service, Spain
Gunn Elin Blakkisrud, DIPS ASA, Norway
Ciprian Gerstenberger, HN IKT, Norway
Rosane Gotardo, Systema Ltda., Brazil
Atle Hansen, Universitetssykehuset Nord-Norge, Norway
Evelyn Hovenga, EJSH Consulting, Australia
Matteus Janicki, Akershus Universitetssykehus, Norway
Anjali Kulkarni, Karkinos, India
Jörgen Kuylenstierna, eWeave AB, Sweden
Liv Laugen, Oslo universitetssykehus, Norway
Heather Leslie, Atomica Informatics, Australia (openEHR Editor)
June Marie Knappskog, Helse Nord IKT AS, Norway, Norway
Ian McNicoll, freshEHR Clinical Informatics, United Kingdom
Olha Nikolaieva, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland
Mikael Nyström, Cambio Healthcare Systems AB, Sweden
Norwegian Review Summary, Norwegian Public Hospitals, Norway
Nyree Taylor, CSIRO, Australia
Kanthan Theivendran, NHS, United Kingdom
John Tore Valand, Helse Vest IKT, Norway
Marte Vassli Gullesen, HNIKT, Norway