[[{"@type":["Article"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.schemaapp.com\/schema-app-news\/schema-org-v24-0-release-changes-to-physician-schema-markup\/#Article","@context":{"@vocab":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","kg":"http:\/\/g.co\/kg"},"url":"https:\/\/www.schemaapp.com\/schema-app-news\/schema-org-v24-0-release-changes-to-physician-schema-markup\/","publisher":[{"@id":"https:\/\/www.schemaapp.com\/#Organization"}],"audience":"https:\/\/schema.org\/PeopleAudience","inLanguage":"en-CA","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.schemaapp.com\/schema-app-news\/schema-org-v24-0-release-changes-to-physician-schema-markup\/#Highlight20251010191959150-393688_0_Article_image_ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/ezk8caoodod.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Jasmine-4.png?strip=all&lossy=1&resize=100%2C100&ssl=1"}],"dateModified":"2026-07-09T14:10:50+00:00","datePublished":"2024-01-18T18:36:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.schemaapp.com\/schema-app-news\/schema-org-v24-0-release-changes-to-physician-schema-markup\/","timeRequired":"PT4M","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ScheduleAction","@id":"https:\/\/www.schemaapp.com\/schema-app-news\/schema-org-v24-0-release-changes-to-physician-schema-markup\/#Article_potentialAction_ScheduleAction","url":"https:\/\/www.schemaapp.com\/book-a-demo\/"}],"headline":"Schema.org V24.0 Release: Changes to Physician Schema Markup","name":"Schema.org V24.0 Release: Changes to Physician Schema Markup","description":"In Schema.org's v24 release, they made a few changes to the Physician Schema Markup including adding two new subtypes for the Physician type.","keywords":["Healthcare","Market News","Physician","Schema Markup","Schema.Org","Structured Data"],"articleBody":"On January 9, 2024, Schema.org released version 24.0 of the vocabulary. In this version, the Schema.org team added vocabulary for describing types of digital sources and new clarifying subtypes for Physicians.\nAt Schema App, the ambiguity around the use of the Physician type has long been an area of contention for many of our healthcare customers. Therefore, this article will hone in on the issues around Physician Schema Markup and how the new clarifying subtypes will resolve them.\nThe Issue With Physician Schema Markup\nPrior to Schema.org\u2019s version 24 release, the Physician type was intended to represent a doctor\u2019s office. It was a subtype of MedicalBusiness via both Organization and Place, and MedicalOrganization via Organization, as shown in the hierarchy below.\n\nThing > Organization > LocalBusiness > MedicalBusiness > Physician\nThing > Place > LocalBusiness > MedicalBusiness > Physician\nThing > Organization > MedicalOrganization > Physician\n\nThis hierarchy emphasized the categorization of Physician markup as a business with a physical location.\nHowever, naming the type \u201cPhysician\u201d caused confusion regarding how to use it properly. As a result, the Physician type was usually applied to describe an individual physician rather than a physician\u2019s office with a physical location.\nYou can read more about the issue in this GitHub ticket.\nChanges to Physician Type in Schema.org v24\nTherefore, Schema.org made a few changes to the Physician type in v24 to provide users with greater clarity in their categorization.\n1. Redefined the Physician type\nThe Physician type is now defined as \u2018an individual physician or a physician\u2019s office considered as a MedicalOrganization\u2019.\n2. Removed Physician as a subtype of LocalBusiness\nThe Physician type is now exclusively a subtype of MedicalOrganization.\n3. Added usNPI property to the Physician type\nThe Physician type now also includes the usNPI (National Provider Identifier) property, a unique 10-digit identification number issued to healthcare providers in the United States by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.\n4. Introduced two new Physician subtypes: IndividualPhysician and PhysiciansOffice\nSchema.org added IndividualPhysician and PhysiciansOffice as subtypes of Physician to disambiguate between these two interpretations of the Physician type.\nNote: Schema.org version 26.0 later went on to restore PhysiciansOffice as a subtype of MedicalBusiness, after accidentally omitting it from the v24 update.\nYou can read more about it in this GitHub ticket.\n5. Added occupationalCategory property to the Physician type\nThe occupationalCategory property is used to describe a job, preferably using a term from a taxonomy such as BLS O*NET-SOC, ISCO-08 or similar. This means you can specify whether a Physician (or its subtypes) has a specific occupational category like obstetrics or pediatrics.\n6. Added new practicesAt property to the IndividualPhysician subtype\nWe will expand on this more in the section below.\nBut before that, let\u2019s learn more about the two new Physician subtypes and how to use them.\nUsing the IndividualPhysician Subtype\nThe IndividualPhysician subtype should be used to describe an entity that is an individual medical practitioner.\nThe IndividualPhysician subtype still has properties available for things like:\n\naddress\nhospitalAffiliation\navailableService\n\nHowever, it also has the new \u2018practicesAt\u2019 property, which is unavailable to either Physician or PhysiciansOffice.\nThe practicesAt property should be used to indicate the MedicalOrganization (i.e. hospital, clinic, pharmacies, etc.) where this individual physician practices. If you have the MedicalOrganization entity defined on a different page of your site, you can connect both entities using this property.\nUsing the PhysiciansOffice Subtype\nThe PhysiciansOffice subtype should be used to describe an entity that is a doctor\u2019s office or clinic.\nIt has the exact same properties as the Physician type, so you can still associate the PhysiciansOffice with a location using the address and hospitalAffiliation properties.\nShould you Update Your Physician Markup?\nIn summary, the changes made to the Physician type in v24 will allow users to describe their content with greater specificity and help search engines better understand and contextualize the content on a page.\nIf you would like to continue using the Physician type to describe the entity on your page, you can do so since the new subtypes have almost the exact same properties. However, being specific with your Schema Markup is essential for search engines to disambiguate the entities on your site, thus allowing them to provide users with more accurate and relevant search results.\nTherefore, we recommend updating your markup if you want to:\n\nClearly distinguish between an individual physician vs a physician\u2019s office,\nLeverage the practicesAt property, which is only available under the IndividualPhysician type.\n\nThe Schema App platform already supports Schema.org V24 if you want to try out the new Physician subtypes and properties. If you are a Schema App Enterprise customer, chat with your Customer Success Manager if you have questions about using these new types and properties.\nIf your healthcare organization is in need of healthcare schema expertise, we can help!\nAt Schema App, we provide an end-to-end Schema Markup solution for healthcare organizations and other enterprise SEO teams. Contact us to learn more about our solution.\nDownload our \u2018Definitive Guide to Healthcare Structured Data\u2019 to develop a comprehensive strategy to start marking up your healthcare pages.Download the eBook\n \nJasmine Drudge-Willson Product Manager Jasmine Drudge-Willson is a Product Manager at Schema App. With a background in taxonomy and ontology design, Jasmine applies that experience to the world of Entity SEO, helping structure how machines understand complex business information. Her work focuses on helping marketers grasp the value of knowledge graphs and use entity-driven insights to enhance their search visibility, improve data accuracy, and prepare for AI-driven search.\n","about":[{"name":"markup language","@id":"https:\/\/entity.schemaapp.com\/Ugozi_Edge_Inc\/Thing_markuplanguage_f68cd70dfc5188eb7c47588145c7f80cdca987953ec2db2c273c4834b27c3e7b","@type":"Thing","@context":{"@vocab":"http:\/\/schema.org\/"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/g.co\/kg\/m\/04s5c","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q37045","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Markup_language"]},{"name":"physician","@id":"https:\/\/entity.schemaapp.com\/Ugozi_Edge_Inc\/Thing_physician_23653f9c30b1bdc0fed2f679e56940930ce8691afd73121c0c1e574b1d62d4e2","@type":"Thing","@context":{"@vocab":"http:\/\/schema.org\/"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/g.co\/kg\/m\/05t4q","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q39631","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Physician"]}],"author":[{"name":"Jasmine 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