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Organizations (SDOs)

Since the early 1990s, the federal government has mandated that its agencies consider using standards developed by voluntary consensus standards bodies -- or explain why federally developed standards are used to support federal policy objectives and activities.

Known as Standards Development Organizations (SDOs), these voluntary consensus-driven organizations are comprised of members from diverse federal and state government agencies, academia, and the private sector. Working together, they bring multiple strengths to standards development. More importantly, they develop agreed-upon standards that ensure the transfer of understandable, coherent, timely, and actionable health information.

CDC and the Public Health Information Network (PHIN) have established working relationships with several key health information technology (HIT) SDOs to develop HIT standards. We will continue to identify and formalize additional SDO alliances in the years to come, as standards evolve.

CURRENT SDO RELATIONSHIPS and ACTIVITIES

PHIN SDOs

Organization: HL7
Web Site: http://www.hl7.org
Membership Level: Benefactor-level member
Role/Activity: HL7 is a key SDO for developing both CDC-wide standards and PHIN-specific standards. PHIN supports memberships in HL7 for its partners, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (http://www.astho.org/) and the National Association of County & City Health Officials (www.naccho.org ). CDC provides access to the HL7 Web site and standards for employees and CDC contractors, so they have ready access for PHIN associated projects.

Organization: The Health Information Standards Panel (HITSP) (a panel within the American National Standards Institute)
Web Site: http://www.ansi.org/standards_activities/standards_boards_panels/hisb/hitsp.aspx
Membership Level: Regular member

Organization: The International Health Terminology SDO
Web Site: http://www.ihtsdo.org/
Role/Activity: IHTSDO controls SNOMED terminology, an underpinning of PHIN’s standards

Organization: LOINC
Web Site: http://www.regenstrief.org/medinformatics/loinc/
Role/Activity: Committee member

CDC Associations

PHIN’s parent organization, the National Center for Public Health Informatics (NCPHI), works with two HIT standards groups that directly impact how CDC does business and play important roles from a national perspective:

Organization: National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS)
Web Site: http://www.ncvhs.hhs.gov/
Role/Activity: CDC is directly involved with NCVHS, which controls healthcare claims transactions in United States under HIPAA and advises the government on healthcare privacy the collection of healthcare statistics.

Organization: American Health Information Community (AHIC)
Web Site: http://www.hhs.gov/healthit/
Role/Activity: An umbrella organization founded by the HHS secretary, AHIC decides health information standards for the nation’s healthcare information exchange structure. AHIC supports the work of HITSP in the area of biosurveillance, and works on public health case reporting, so they are directly involved with CDC’s public health initiatives.