Some Standards Setting Organizations

As you can see there are many of these organizations. Some of the most important in nursing have asterisks (*) before them.

American National Standards Institute (ANSI)

Does not develop standards, but establishes consensus and accredits groups developing standards.
http://www.ansi.org/

American Dental Association (ADA)

Development of standards including terminology in dentistry.
http://www.ada.org/

American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)

Assists in the development of voluntary consensus standards for material, products, systems and services.
http://www.astm.org/

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

Sponsors a technical standards committee that coordinates official ACM participation in standards development.
http://www.acm.org/

*Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM)

Creates and maintains international standards for communication of biomedical diagnostic and therapeutic information in disciplines that use digital images and associated data digital images.
http://medical.nema.org/

European Committee for Standards

In conjunction with worldwide bodies and European partners, promotes voluntary standards for Europe in many areas including respiratory and anesthetic equipment, dentistry, and safety of toys.
http://www.cen.eu/cenorm/homepage.htm

*Health Level 7 (HL7)

Provides standards for exchange, management, and integration of data supporting clinical patient care and the management, delivery, and evaluation of healthcare services.
http://www.hl7.org/

*Healthcare Informatics Standards Board

An ANSI board, it provides an open, public forum for the voluntary coordination of healthcare informatics standards among all United States standard developing organizations. Every major developer of healthcare informatics standards in the United States participates in ANSI HISB.
http://www.ansi.org/standards_activities/standards_boards_panels/hisb/hitsp.aspx?menuid=3

*International Health Terminology Standards Development. (IHTSDO)

A not-for-profit association that develops and promotes use of SNOMED CT to support safe and effective health information exchange. SNOMED CT is a clinical terminology and is considered to be the most comprehensive, multilingual healthcare terminology in the world. The International Classification of Nursing Practice (ICNP) is a working part of IHTSDO.
http://www.ihtsdo.org/

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

Technical areas such as computer engineering, biomedical technology and telecommunications.
http://www.ieee.org/portal/site

International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)

Sets standards for all fields of electro-technology.
http://www.iec.ch/

International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS)

Produce voluntary, market-driven consensus standards in area of information technology. Formerly the Accredited Standards Committee NCITS and Accredited Standards Committee X3, Information Technology.
http://www.incits.org/

*International Organization of Standards (ISO)

Worldwide Coordinating Body for Standards. The 140 participating countries have one member. Sponsors many technical committees that develop standards.
http://www.iso.org/iso/home.htm

International Standards Organization Glossary

A quick and easy to use reference for which standard covers which topic
http://www.standardsglossary.com/

National Council for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS)

Develop consensus in standards in medical testing by developing and disseminating standards and best practices.
http://www.clsi.org/

National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP)

Creates and promotes data interchange standards for pharmacy data.
http://www.ncpdp.org/

Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI)

Support for the adoption of electronic commerce within healthcare through forums, training programs and assisting healthcare to define, prioritize and reach consensus on technical areas.
http://www.wedi.org

Created January 15, 2011