Within the context of the ISO/IEEE 11073 family of standards for device communication, a normative definition of communication is established in ISO/IEEE 11073-10421:2012 between personal telehealth peak expiratory flow monitor devices and compute engines (e.g. cell phones, personal computers, personal health appliances, and set top boxes) in a manner that enables plug-and-play interoperability. Appropriate portions of existing standards are leveraged, including ISO/IEEE 11073 terminology, information models, application profile standards, and transport standards. The use of specific term codes, formats, and behaviors is specified in telehealth environments restricting optionality in base frameworks in favor of interoperability. A common core of communication functionality is defined for personal telehealth peak expiratory flow monitor devices.