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About the eHSCG

The establishment of the eHealth Standardization Coordination Group” (eHSCG) was proposed by the Workshop on “Standardization in e-Health” (Geneva, 23-25 May 2003) with representatives of several standards bodies and WHO and endorsed by ITU-T Study Group 16 in May 2003. A formal invitation to join was sent from ITU to WHO, ISO/TC 215, CEN/TC 251, IEEE/1073, IEC/TC 62, DICOM and HL7 and asked for acceptance to joint and nomination of a representative. All except IEC responded and have participated in the planning phase. Subsequently, OASIS also joined the group.

The overall objective is to promote stronger coordination amongst the key players in the e-Health Standardization area. The terms of reference of the original invitation are reproduced in the annex here.

The eHSCG is performing informal consultation and coordination on voluntary basis and its recommendations are purely advisory. In particular they do not supersede any official and legal coordination procedures in place at national and international level.

Terms of reference

Membership

The eHSCG is in principle open to representatives of all key players involved in e-health standardisation (e.g., governmental and non-governmental organisations, SDOs, private Fora/Consortia, scientific organisations, etc…).

The eHSCG decides to accept new participants based on the proposals made by the existing members.

The participation to the physical meeting and to the correspondence group(s) is by invitation only.

The list of members is updated by the eHSCG-Secretary and available on the eHSCG web site.

The group is also open to a number of observers. For subscription to this at-large group, please contact the Secretariat at tsbsg16@itu.int

Member organizations

Management

The eHSCG designates a chairman based on consensus among the eHSCG members present at the physical meeting. The chairman duties are:

to organise, to support and to promote the progress of the work in accordance with the action plan approved on a yearly basis;
to chair the meetings;
to represent the eHSCG among third parties.

To perform these activities, the chairman gets the support of the eHSCG-Secretary. The chairman is appointed for one year, renewable. The current chairman of the group is Gunnar Klein and the secretary is Vicente Traver.

Reporting

For each physical meeting of the eHSCG, a progress report is prepared by the secretary with the assistance of the eHSCG chairman.

Secretariat

The TSB of the ITU (through ITU-T Study Group 16) provides the necessary support for the eHSCG activities, like managing the eHSCG website, updating the list of members and providing the necessary tools to perform the work by correspondence.

Promotion and communication

The work programme should include a promotion and communication plan (e.g. participation to relevant events like conferences and seminars, publication of press release, etc.). The eHSCG-Secretary will put all eHSCG relevant presentations on a specific folder in the eHSCG website.

Meeting and working methods

As far as possible the work is performed using e-mail reflectors managed by the eHSCG-Secretary. If needed different correspondence groups can be created depending on the issues to be discussed. Physical meetings are held in principle at least once a year, if possible combined with an e-Health related event.