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MarkDiehl.com
Health Information Architecture, Data Modeling, and Enterprise Architecture Planning |
Voluntary Consensus Standards |
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The U.S. Standards Development Environment U.S. Health Informatics Standards Activities
All content copyright © 2002, 2003 by Mark Diehl. All rights reserved. |
The United States is unique in the international marketplace in the way it manages standards development and implementation. Internationally, most national governments take active control over standards programs and the development and implementation of national standards. In many nations, standards development and implementation are performed by government components. While the United States provides key and essential standards services through the National Institute of Standards and Technology, our government actively promotes the practice of voluntary consensus standards in the private sector. Voluntary consensus standards have two key concepts. Voluntary standards mean the consumer, the industry, or other users have a freedom to choose if and among those standards to use. Consensus means that standards are developed based upon the best knowledge, understanding, and intentions of a diverse group of experts in the field. Standards development organizations (SDOs) are usually established as a formal body, association, or consortium. In the United States SDOs are established to meet a specific need within an industry or across industry lines. These organizations serve out a productive lifetime corresponding to the business need for their standards activities. Standards development both internationally and within the United States is a combination of technical, political and marketing efforts. Standards development and harmonization is very much a political process, relying on both the technical and interpersonal expertise of the standards developers. Standards, however, are meaningless unless used in the marketplace. Successful standards developers employ marketing efforts to ensure their standards are relevant to the marketplace, that potential users are educated about their standards, and that their standards are appropriately employed.
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