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Canada's Participation on ISO/TC215

Canada, a founding member of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) technical committee, TC215 – Health Informatics, is a vital contingent both technically and strategically for the international committee. Beyond the essential expertise provided to projects under development with the committee, Canadian delegates are leaders in the forefront of the committee's progress and success, providing influence through senior roles in:

• Leadership in several Working Groups (WG) and Project Groups, including:
• Convenership and Secretariat of working group (WG) 1 - Data Structure
• Convenership of WG4 - Security, Safety and Privacy
• Convenership of WG8 - Business Requirements for Electronic Health Records (EHRs)
• Convenership of WG9 - Standards Development Organizations Harmonization
• Executive Council
• Joint Initiative on Standards Development Organization (SDO) Global Health Informatics Standardization
• Operations & Harmonization Committee
• Spearheading a large number of work items over the past decade

In providing the Secretariat for ISO/TC215's WG 1, Data Structure on behalf of the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), Canada's national member body to ISO, the Infoway Standards Collaborative (SC) also administers the WG1 website. The following is a link to the login page of the ISO/TC215/WG1 members-only site: https://int.scc.ca/forums/int/dispatch.cgi

Canada is a "Participating" or "P" member of ISO/ TC215, and therefore has the obligation to vote on proposed International Standards, Technical Specifications, and Technical Reports, within the ISO approval process.

Canada also provides leadership in the development of the numerous work items and actively uses the technical committee's standards in its local, regional and pan-Canadian health informatics efforts.

Working with the SCC, the SC supports the Canadian delegation to ISO/TC215 and ensures a strong, ongoing Canadian presence at this international forum.

Domestic Benefits of ISO/TC215 Participation

The domestic benefits of Canada's ongoing participation at ISO/TC215 include:

• Leveraging international standards resources
• Strengthening the international marketability of Canadian health information system products
• Promoting the adoption of existing international standards in Canada
• Ensuring the enhanced compatibility of information system applications produced by multinational vendors

About ISO/TC215 

Since 1998, ISO/TC215 Health Informatics has developed standards within the following scope:

Standardization in the field of information for health, and Health Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to promote interoperability between independent systems, to enable compatibility and consistency for health information and data, as well as to reduce duplication of effort and redundancies.

The domain of ICT for health includes but is not limited to:

• Healthcare delivery
• Disease Prevention and wellness promotion
• Public health and surveillance
• Clinical Research related to health service

The following diagram illustrates the current structure of the ISO/TC215, and its nine working groups.

ISO/TC215's current work program comprises over 140 items, which comprehensively cover the contemporary health information standards spectrum.

ISO/TC215:

• Hosts over 28 active participating (P-member) countries, including Canada, and a similar number of observing (O-member) countries.
• Maintains an extensive array of liaisons through its standards efforts, including but not limited to: HL7, the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organization (IHTSDO), the European Committee for Standardization (CEN)/TC251 – Health Informatics, Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine Standards Committee (DICOM) and GS1.
• Provides leadership to the Joint Initiative on SDO Global Health Informatics Standardization, including the Joint Initiative Council (JIC).
• The JIC consists of leaders from participating SDOs, including ISO/TC215, HL7, CEN/TC251, IHTSDO, GS1 and Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC).
• The JIC operates as a council of equals, and as liaison group under ISO/TC215.

ISO/TC215 and its working groups typically meet twice per year to develop standards and related guidance documents. This includes a Plenary Meeting in the spring and a Joint Working Group Meeting in the autumn. Additional out-of-cycle meetings are held as required; ad hoc meetings, in conjunction with ISO/TC215’s principal liaison SDO partners, HL7 and CEN/TC251, are also frequent.

For more information on the technical committee, ISO/TC215 – Health Informatics, please visit the ISO website.

The ISO/TC215 Canadian Constituency

Domestically, the SC hosts the ISO/TC215 Canadian Constituency, which is a broader group of stakeholders interested in contributing to the development of Canadian positions on ISO/TC215 work items. The ISO/TC215 Canadian Constituency holds a harmonized meeting with the Canadian Advisory Committee (CAC), in conjunction with the Infoway Partnership Conference. For more information about domestic activities related to ISO/TC215, please visit the ISO/TC215 Canadian Constituency forum, accessible with an Infoway Passport.

The Canadian Advisory Committee

The Canadian Advisory Committee (CAC) to ISO/TC215 establishes the Canadian position for all ISO/TC215 voting items. Its responsibilities include:

• Providing Canadian input to ISO/TC215 in a timely and effective manner
• Establishing expert groups as needed
• Ensuring that information regarding Canada's activity in ISO/TC215 is accurately reflected and broadly disseminated to domestic stakeholders

Members of the CAC represent key stakeholder groups in the area of health information and health informatics in Canada, reflecting an ongoing balance among industry, governments, users and general interest groups. The SC administers the Secretariat to the CAC in conjunction with the SCC. The CAC has a members-only site hosted by the SCC.

For more information on contributing to ISO/TC215 on behalf of Canada, contact the

Standards Collaborative Infodesk