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Section 1e: Version 3 (V3)
Section 4: Rules and References

HL7 Healthcare Privacy and Security Classification System (HCS), Release 1

DESCRIPTION

International standard document describing the use of a Healthcare Privacy and Security Classification System (HCS) suitable for automated labeling and segmentation of protected health care information by access control systems to enforce privacy and security policies.

ALTERNATIVE NAMES

HL7 Healthcare Privacy and Security Classification System (HCS), Release 1 may also go by the following names or acronyms:

"HL7 Healthcare Privacy and Security Classification System, R1", HCS

TARGETS

  • Clinical and Public Health Laboratories
  • Standards Development Organizations (SDOs)
  • Pharmaceutical Vendors
  • EHR, PHR Vendors
  • Health Care IT Vendors
  • Clinical Decision Support Systems Vendors
  • Lab Vendors
  • HIS Vendors
  • Healthcare Institutions (hospitals, long term care, home care, mental health)

BENEFITS

  • Creates the syntax and semantics to structure and encode metadata about the privacy, security, consent, provenance, and trust policies that apply to specific health information as security labels
  • Enables interoperable exchange of security metadata to ensure that only authorized users access protected health information

IMPLEMENTATIONS/CASE STUDIES

  • The VA sponsored and piloted the HCS.
  • The HCS is integral to the security labels required in the HL7 Implementation Guide: Data Segmentation for Privacy (DS4P), Release 1, which ONC named as an optional CEHRT standard.
  • Multiple EHR vendors have obtained certification of their products as compliant with the DS4P Implementation Guide.
  • AXLE  Presentation on AXLE

DEVELOPMENT BACKGROUND

The HCS is modeled after the security labeling standards used by the intelligence community.

RELATED DOCUMENTS

HL7 Healthcare Privacy and Security Classification System (HCS), Release 1

(Download)

TOPICS

  • Security and Privacy
  • Terminology

BALLOT TYPE

  • Normative

STATUS DATE

2014-08-08

RESPONSIBLE WORK GROUP

Security

STAKEHOLDERS

  • Clinical and Public Health Laboratories
  • Clinical Decision Support Systems Vendors
  • EHR, PHR Vendors
  • Health Care IT Vendors
  • Healthcare Institutions
  • HIS Vendors
  • Lab Vendors
  • Pharmaceutical Vendors
  • Standards Development Organizations (SDOs)

FAMILY

  • V3

CURRENT STATE

  • Stable

REALM

  • Universal