Universal standards for national health information systems
13 October
Fourteen Member States of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), a preeminent standard setting body, voted that it was feasible for the HMN Framework to become a global ISO standard. Five or more of the approving countries have agreed to participate in the development of this project and have nominated on expert. The result, which followed an HMN and WHO proposal submitted this spring, was made available following the 27th Meeting of the ISO Technical Committee 215 Working Group on Data Structure which met from 10-13 October in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. While several steps will need to be taken over the next few months, this positive vote will pave the way for the HMN Framework to be considered an ISO standard for designing country health information systems. Standards are an important aspect of HIS strengthening.