ANSI Seeks Comments on New ISO Field of Activity on the Human Phenome

4/22/2019

Submit Input by May 31

As the U.S. member body to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) encourages its members and relevant stakeholders to comment on an ISO new work item proposal to develop standards on the human phenome.

The proposal, submitted by the Standardization Administration of China (SAC), offers the following scope statement: Standardization in the field of human phenome. The proposal includes the following definition and clarifications:

Human phenome is defined as the complete set of all human characteristics and is determined by the interaction between genes and the environment.

Human phenome includes many characteristics, from macro- to micro-scales, external appearance to internal functions, and biochemical characteristics to psychological behavior, among others.

The proposal excludes the following fields covered by existing international technical committees:

ISO TC 276, Biotechnology

ISO TC 215, Health Information

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 37, Biometrics

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29, Coding of Audio, Picture, Multimedia, and Hypermedia Information

ISO/TC 249, Traditional Chinese Medicine

Additional information is provided in the proposal document.

Please submit comments to Steve Cornish, ANSI senior director of international policy, at [email protected] by close of business on Friday, May 31, 2019.

ANSI has published an explanatory information document outlining the process used to develop U.S. positions on issues and activities under consideration by ISO and IEC.