Standards for the communication of diagnostic and therapeutic images (international in scope).

Develops standards and promotes the voluntary use of technical standards in libraries and publishing and information services. Serves as U.S. technical advisory group to TC 46 of the International Organization for Standardization. Maintains 25 standards committees.

Chaired by American Hospital Association and consists of equal representation of provider organizations (i.e., AHA and state affiliates, Healthcare Financial Management Association and Federation of American Health Systems) and payer organizations (Health Care Financing Administration [HCFA], Medicaid, CHAMPUS, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association [BCBSA] and the Health Insurance Association of America [HIAA]. The Group Health Association of America/American Managed Care and Review Association (GHAA/AMCRA) more recently has become a member. NUBC is responsible for uniform data standards and formats for institutional health care services and providers; it developed and maintains the Uniform Bill (currently UB-92), which is a major vehicle for collecting the Uniform Hospital Discharge Data Set (UHDDS).

Chaired by American Medical Association and consists of 12 voting members, including HCFA, Alliance for Managed Care, ANSI ASC X12N, BCBSA, AAHP, HIAA, Medical Group Management Association, National Association of Insurance Commissioners, National Association of Equipment Services, National Association of State Medicaid Directors, and NUBC. NUCC is developing a uniform claim for the noninstitutional health care community. Its predecessor, the Uniform Claim Form Task Force, co-chaired by AMA and HCFA, developed the HCFA 1500, which is a major vehicle for collecting the Uniform Ambulatory Care Data Set (UACDS). The goal of the NUCC is for the uniform claim to be equivalent across products, contracts and government programs.

ACGIH is an organization devoted to the development and improvement of worker health protection. The organization develops Treshold Limit Values (TLVs) for chemical and physical agents and Biological Exposure Indices (BEIs) for chemicals. TLVs and BEIs are intended for use by health professionals as guidelines or recommendations in the control of potential health hazards and are used internationally for establishing occupational standards.

Formed in 1995 as a purchaser and consumer driven organization to evaluate, endorse and promote a common set of patient-oriented measures of health care quality focused on the outcomes of care. Does not intend to become an auditing or accrediting organization. Published a Prototype Guidebook for Performance Measurement.

Formed in 1951 by American College of Physicians, American College of Surgeons, American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, and Canadian Medical Association. Accredits hospitals and other healthcare organizations, including health care networks. In 1994 developed the Indicator Measurement System (IMSystem) to help health care organizations measure and improve their performance and to assist JCAHO in evaluating the performance of health care organizations as part of the survey and accreditation process. .

Formed in 1979 by GHAA/AMCRA to promote quality assurance, standards, and performance measurement. Now independent. Developed Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) and Medicaid HEDIS. Committee on Performance Measurement currently developing HEDIS 3.0. NCQA also reviews and accredits managed care plans.

Established in 1990 as an arm of AMCRA to promote consistent standards in the way that utilization review procedures are applied. Now independent. Organizations offering UR services can seek accreditation from URAC; standards apply to prospective, concurrent, and retrospective utilization review for inpatient admissions as well as outpatient procedures and services. In 1995 developed national network accreditation standards.

Establishes DHHS IRM policy, technology standards, and reviews all departmental information technology investments for providing funding action advice to the DHHS Chief Information Officer and the Secretary under the Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1996.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Policy Board responsible for formulating and enacting policy concerning the planning, development, maintenance and use of integrated public health information and surveillance systems. The Board also coordinates standards development and representation of CDC to standards-setting organizations.

External Advisory Committee to Secretary and Data Council, DHHS; consists of 16 members with overlapping four-year terms. NCHS serves as Executive Secretary. Committee was established in 1949 in response to recommendation by the World Health Organization. Rechartered in January 1996 to include a more direct focus on data standardization and privacy activities.

Established in 1974 at the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Has responsibility for the International Classification of Diseases family of classifications in the United States and in English-speaking North America.

European Standards Committee; prepares as well as coordinates European standards in all sectors.

Deals with healthcare information, modeling and medical records; terminology; communications and messages; security and privacy.

Responsible for international communications standards.

Goal is for a single international EDI standard flexible enough to meet the needs of government and private industry. United Nations/Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) appoints EDIFACT rapporteurs for North American, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Australia/New Zealand, Asia and Africa. HCFA and NIST are working on a project to analyze and compare the healthcare EDI standards being developed by ASC X12 and those being developed by the UN/EDIFACT committee.

This organization has developed the ILO International Classification of Radiographs of Pneumoconioses (dust diseases of the lungs which are often occupationally related). The ILO system enables radiologists and other physicians to classify chest radiographs of persons with pneumoconiosis. The aim of this system is to standardize chest x-ray classification methods and facilitate international comparisions of pneumoconiosis statistics and research reports. It also can be used as a severity index for specific types of pneumoconioses.

Founded in 1946, one of the two major international non-treaty standards organizations; serves to coordinate and develop international voluntary consensus standards that facilitate world trade and contribute to public safety and health. ANSI is the official US member body. A proposal is under review to create an ISO Technical Committee on Healthcare Informatics.

Established by NCHS for infant mortality, aging, injury, and most recently, automated mortality statistics. Goal is to enable comparative analyses while increasing comparability of data collected.

WHO is a specialized agency of the United Nations. Its responsibilities include the International Classification of Diseases. This is performed in conjunction with collaborating centers, established primarily on the basis of language, in North America (NCHS), England, Australia, Paris, Nordic countries (Uppsala), Moscow, Beijing, Caracas, Sao Paulo and Kuwait. Other countries, such as Japan, have recognized ICD offices.

This nonprofit national membership organization was established in 1986 to help state data organizations effectively meet their mandated responsibilities and to promote the importance of state data organizations and public domain data sets. Dedicated to improving health care through the collection, dissemination, public availability and use of health data, NAHDO fosters collaboration among private and public data organizations and has been a strong supporter of standards for health data sets.

Formerly the Association of Vital Registration and Statistics (AVRHS). Membership organization of State Vital Registrars, Directors of State Centers for Health Statistics and other health information systems professionals. Works closely with NCHS on the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program (VSCP) and developing the standard certificates and electronic standards for vital events.

Works to improve the relevance and responsiveness of information systems and computerization to the broad range of social, ecological and economic problems faced by government at all levels; encourages the design, development and use of systems to improve decision making at all levels; establishes programs for the interchange of information.

A joint effort of NAHDO and the Center for Health Research and Communications, Inc., to use the power of the World Wide Web of the Internet to provide a centralized, clearinghouse of information about health information systems, health data projects, services and products. Received an initial start-up grant from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in March 1996.

FDA system of coding symbols for thesaurus of adverse reaction terms.

Created and maintained by the American Medical Association, which holds the copyright. Required for reporting of outpatient procedures and physician services in the United States.

European Union-funded project aiming to develop the foundations for the next generation of computer-based multilingual coding systems for medicine.

CPT-4 expanded by HCFA to include non physician procedures and durable medical equipment and supplies.

Developed as a classification for causes of death in 1893. Required for all mortality coding in the United States. Currently ninth revision - ICD-9 - is in use; ICD-10 is scheduled to be implemented for mortality in 1998, with ability to back code to 1996 data.

Required for all morbidity coding of diseases in the United States.

The procedure classification required for reporting on all hospital procedures in the United States.

Developed in the 1970s under WHO as a tool for the classification of the consequences of diseases. Belongs to the ICD family of classifications. WHO Collaborating Center for the Classification of Diseases for North America is coordinating U.S. and Canadian input to the revision of ICIDH, scheduled for 1998.

LOINC was developed at Regenstrief Institute for laboratory and clinical observation coding. It is available free-of-charge on the HL-7 web site and is being considered for adoption by several major laboratories.

NDC is supported by NCPDP and is used almost universally for coding drugs.

This system was developed by Dr. James Read, a general practitioner in England in early 1980's. It is a mechanism for storing structured information about patients in individual, patient-based records. It has been adopted by the National Health Service as the standard coding system in primary care.

A structured nomenclature and classification of the terminology used in human and veterinary medicine developed by the College of Pathologists and American Veterinary Medical Association. Terms are applied to one of eleven independent systematized modules.

1) Bureau of Census 1990 industry and occupation codes

Under development by the National Library of Medicine as a standard health vocabulary. Includes a Metathesaurus, a Semantic Network and an Information Sources Map. The purpose of the UMLS is to help health professionals and researchers retrieve and integrate electronic biomedical information from a variety of sources, irrespective of the variations in the way similar concepts are expressed in different sources and classification systems. Has incorporated most source vocabularies. Large-scale testing is taking place.

Developed, maintains and updates CPT; holds the copyright on the system.