Health information standards

 Health information standards are paving the road to a better future for healthcare quality, cost, and equality.  However, standards have been around for far longer than the modern healthcare system.  In this assignment, participants will choose a standard of information exchange and discuss some key points with regards to what has been learned so far.

Step 1: Choose a Standard

Choose a data or information standard, preferably one that you personally understand.  It doesn’t have to be health-related and it doesn’t even have to be a digital format – What matters is that you like using the format yourself, whether for work or for fun!

If you need some ideas, below are some standards that have been written about in previous years.  These are only suggestions, and you can pick an item that’s not on this list.

MPEG Layer 3 Audio (MP3)

IATA Airport Codes

National Library of Congress System

Nutrition Facts Labeling (US, EU, or country/area of your choice)

Periodic Table of Elements

IUPAC Chemical Nomenclature

Binomial Nomenclature (Biology)

Gene Nomenclature (HGNC)

Dewey Decimal System

IU Course Coding

COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2)-related terminology

 

If your choice isn’t on this list, and you’re not sure if your choice will work, please contact the instructor ASAP!

Step 2: Do the Research & Answer the Questions

Use at least 3 external valid resources that you find on your own (via Google, University Library, etc.) to explain the following (you can also use class readings on top of these if relevant):

Introduction: Define the standard and its source. Overall, why does this standard exist?

How did this standard come about? (Write up a brief history of it)

What are things that describe how this standard functions? Not all of these are applicable to all standards.

If the standard is delivered as a digital file (e.g. MP3), aspects of the file format

Data elements; tags; markup

Hardware aspects

Semantic aspects of information

How does this standard help out in different levels of interoperability? (Not all of the below will apply – Most standards lean towards the bottom or the top)

Compatibility

Syntactic

Semantic

Cross-Domain

What aspects of society has this standard changed (worsened or improved), and how?

Maximum body length 750 words

All assertions need to be cited in APA format–Keep track of your sources at all times.  A minimum of three (3) properly-written external citations – the textbook doesn’t count - are required.