Version 0.8 (22 December 2025)

Added biological relationship properties for expressing mechanistic connections between entities.

New Biological Relationship Properties

Three property pairs for expressing regulatory and production relationships in biological systems:

• stimulates / stimulatedBy — Activation relationships (e.g., "PDGF stimulates fibroblast proliferation")
• inhibits / inhibitedBy — Suppression relationships (e.g., "Cortisol inhibits collagen synthesis")
• produces / producedBy — Biosynthesis relationships (e.g., "Fibroblasts produce collagen")

Use Cases

• Knowledge graph traversal: Query "what stimulates collagen production?" and get structured answers
• Drug mechanism documentation: Link medications to what they inhibit
• Cell function documentation: List what cell types produce
• Treatment mechanism: Show how therapies work through regulatory relationships

Alignment

These properties align with Gene Ontology relationships (positively_regulates, negatively_regulates) whilst using accessible terminology for health content markup.

New Property Documentation

Created dedicated documentation pages for 5 custom properties:

• initialCause — Starting trigger that initiates a causal pathway
• finalOutcome — End result or ultimate effect of a causal pathway
• physiologicalState — Body's biological state at a temporal stage
• patientExperience — What patients observe or feel at a temporal stage
• clinicalImplication — Practical takeaway for clinical practice

Version 0.7 (11 December 2025)

Property documentation, cleanup, and consistency improvements.

New Property Documentation

Created dedicated documentation pages for 7 custom properties:

• evidenceSource — Reference to evidence supporting claims (new property)
• limitations — Caveats and boundaries of claims
• mechanism — Biological/chemical process descriptions
• modifiable — Whether factors can be changed
• endogenousCapacity — Tissue self-production ability
• worksWellWith — Complementary ingredient categories
• insufficientAlone — Why categories need complementary support

New Pages

• Property — Type page for Health Schema properties with full listing
• Changelog — This version history page

Properties Added

• evidenceSource — Added to CausalStep, CausalPathway, ContributingFactor, TemporalStage, PrioritizedRecommendation, CompositionComparison, PhysiologicalRequirement
• rationale — Added to CausalStep (documents why a mechanism occurs)
• clinicalImplication — Added to ConditionalRecommendation

Properties Removed

Removed 7 deprecated properties from context.jsonld:

• evidenceStrength — Replaced by evidenceSource with proper citations
• evidenceOrigin — Replaced by evidenceSource
• citation — Replaced by evidenceSource (more flexible typing)
• conditions — Ambiguous; use applicablePopulation instead
• minValue — Use schema.org's QuantitativeValue instead
• maxValue — Use schema.org's QuantitativeValue instead
• unitText — Use schema.org's QuantitativeValue instead

Type Page Updates

Updated all 20 type documentation pages:

• Removed references to deprecated properties
• Added links to new property documentation pages
• Applied consistent table formatting (<th scope="row">) for accessibility
• Added evidenceSource to applicable types

Version 0.6 (9 December 2025)

Added three new supporting types for ingredient and composition analysis.

New Types

• CompositionComparison — Expresses biochemical similarity between substances (e.g., tallow to sebum)
• FunctionalIngredientCategory — Categories of ingredients by function (humectants, emollients, occlusives)
• PhysiologicalRequirement — What tissues need to function optimally

New Properties

• substance — The substance being evaluated for similarity
• comparedTo — Reference substance being compared to
• sharedComponents — Components present in both substances
• similarityBasis — Aspect of composition being compared
• similarityDegree — How similar the substances are
• clinicalRelevance — Why similarity matters therapeutically
• tissue — Anatomical structure with a requirement
• requirement — What the tissue needs
• endogenousCapacity — Tissue's self-production ability
• externalSources — External sources for requirements
• consequenceIfUnmet — What happens when requirement is not met
• optimalLevel — Optimal amount if quantifiable
• clinicalSignificance — Why understanding this matters
• mechanismOfAction — How ingredient category works
• physiologicalRole — Role in tissue function
• exampleIngredients — Examples in this category
• worksWellWith — Complementary categories
• insufficientAlone — Why category needs others
• contraindications — When category may be inappropriate

Version 0.5 (November 2025)

Initial public release with core types for medical content markup.

Core Types

• CausalPathway — Multi-step mechanistic pathways
• CausalStep — Individual steps in causal pathways
• BiologicalProcess — Biological processes and mechanisms
• TemporalProgression — Time-based progressions
• TemporalStage — Individual stages in progressions
• MultifactorialCondition — Conditions with multiple contributing factors
• ContributingFactor — Individual factors in multifactorial conditions
• FactorInteraction — How factors interact with each other
• ConditionalRecommendation — Population-specific recommendations
• PopulationCriteria — Criteria defining applicable populations
• PopulationCharacteristic — Individual population characteristics
• LabValueCriterion — Lab value-based criteria
• ClinicalCriterion — Clinical criteria for populations
• RiskAssessment — Risk level assessments
• PrioritizedRecommendation — Prioritised action recommendations
• MonitoringProtocol — Monitoring schedules and metrics
• TreatmentReview — Treatment review checkpoints

Documentation

• Published healthschema.org website
• Created type documentation pages with examples
• Published JSON-LD context file
• Added usage guides and best practices

Versioning Policy

Health Schema uses semantic versioning:

• Major versions (1.0, 2.0) — Breaking changes or significant restructuring
• Minor versions (0.6, 0.7) — New types, properties, or non-breaking changes
• Patch versions (0.7.1) — Bug fixes, documentation corrections

Deprecation Policy

When properties or types are deprecated:

1. They are marked as deprecated in documentation
2. Replacement guidance is provided
3. They remain in the context file for one minor version
4. They are removed in the following minor version

Backwards Compatibility

Health Schema aims to maintain backwards compatibility where possible. Existing markup using documented types and properties will continue to work. Deprecated properties should be migrated to replacements at your convenience.