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New ISO Technical Specification on Personal Health Information

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO – www.iso.org) has published a new technical specification relating to the purposes for which personal health information can be processed by computer systems for subsequent use by clinicians and others in healthcare organizations. The new technical specification, ISO/TS 14265:2011, Health informatics – Classification of purposes for processing personal health information, “provides a framework for classifying specific purposes that can be defined and used by individual policy domains (e.g. healthcare organizations, regional health authorities, jurisdiction countries) as an aid to the consistent management of information in the delivery of healthcare services and for the communication of electronic health records across organizational and jurisdictional boundaries” (ISO, 2012) .The scope of application of ISO/TS 14265:2011 is limited to Personal Health Information as defined in ISO 27799, information about an identifiable person that relates to the physical or mental health of the individual, or to provision of health services to the individual.
ISO/TS 14265:2011 was developed by ISO/TC 215, health informatics. The documentation relating to ISO/TS 14265:2011 is available from ISO national member institutes, or can be obtained directly from the ISO Central Secretariat. According to Elaine Sawatsky and Dipak Kalra, project leaders of the committee that developed the standard, it will “help organizations understand how to manage the personal health information that they hold, and how to ensure that the information is used appropriately and consistently” (ISO, 2012).
ISO TC 215 is a Technical Committee of ISO; its scope addresses standardization in the field of information for health, and Health Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to promote interoperability between independent systems, to enable compatibility and consistency for health information and data, as well as to reduce duplication of effort and redundancies (ISO, 2011). The domain of ICT for health includes, but is not limited to, activities including healthcare delivery, disease prevention and wellness promotion, public health and surveillance, and clinical research related to health service.
In its media release, ISO explains the importance of this new technical specification. ISO notes that electronic health records (EHRs) are being used increasingly and contain health information is usually documented by healthcare professionals as part of the process of delivering care. This information is subsequently used to support the continuing care of each patient, but in addition, there are many other uses; EHR information may be used to enable the healthcare organization to manage its services better and more safely, and for a wider range of purposes such as public health, education and research. While for ethical and legal reasons, ISO note (ISO, 2012) information should only be used for the purposes for which it was collected or created to date there has been no standard listing of the possible kinds of purpose of use of personal health information. It is hoped that ISO/TS 14265:2011, Health informatics – Classification of purposes for processing personal health information, will address this gap.