Continuity of care implies the management of health information in two different perspectives: - local management of information about the subject of care, at the site of care provision, - information interchange between health care providers. This European pre-standard seeks to identify and define those processes which relate to the continuity of care. It specifically addresses aspects of sharing patient related information needed in the process of care. It identifies and defines relevant data and information flows, together with their relationships to "time slots". In order to support the delivery of high quality care to each patient, and to facilitate continuity of care, a full understanding is needed of the temporal aspects of the delivery of health care, the role of each party in the health care process , and their interaction in the patient’s environment. The concepts describing the characteristics of the ongoing process of care should not differ in nature from those that are used to structure and organise the data locally in the Electronic Health Care Record. This European pre-standard addresses such topics as : - organisational principles of longitudinal care - actors : health care agents, health care parties, subjects of care, health care providers, provider organisations, health care professionals, and third parties - events : health issues, and their management - situations :, contacts, encounters, episodes of care, and periods of service - concepts related to decision support, use of clinical knowledge, and activity : services, protocols, programmes of care, care plans, care pathways - concepts related to responsibility and information flows within the clinical process : mandates and their notification - concepts related to health data management