A standard is a set of agreements between all parties involved. Delivering healthcare is a matter of co-operation: healthcare can only be delivered in a responsible fashion when parties involved comply to standards. This becomes evident when a healthcare information infrastmcture is under development. The authors dehver a comprehensive introduction to standards which apply to the Electronic Healthcare Record (EHR) , describe work in progress of relevant standardisation committees and argue about future work of such committees in order to pursue a coherent healthcare information infrastmcture.