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| Long Range Plan 2000-2005 | |
Printer-friendly VersionGOAL 3 - STRENGTHEN THE INFORMATICS INFRASTRUCTURE
FOR BIOMEDICINE AND
HEALTH
OBJECTIVE 3.3 -
MONITOR AND
CONTRIBUTE TO PUBLIC POLICY FINDINGS
FINDINGS
The spread of the Internet
and the World Wide Web have increased the number of public policy issues
that affect the organization, access, and use of electronic
information. Public policy issues affect NLM’s ability to fulfill its
mission and also shape the ways in which advanced computing and
communications can be used in health care, prevention, research, and
education. Policy designed to correct abuses in one sector, e.g., piracy
of entertainment recordings and videos, can have unintended consequences
that restrict the flow of scientific and medical information. To guard
against these unwanted secondary effects, NLM must monitor and
contribute to policy development in such areas as electronic
intellectual property
rights, the application of copyright law and
guidelines to electronic information, the use of contracts and licenses
to provide access to information, Internet filtering, health data
standards , and health data privacy. affect NLM’s ability to fulfill
its mission. NLM contributes to policy development in a variety of ways:
highlighting the importance of policy issues to the Library’s
constituent groups ; collaborating with library associations in
defending the principle of “fair use” of copyrighted works; and
commissioning or supporting studies by the National Research Council
on intellectual property issues relevant to scientific
databases, protecting electronic health information, and pre serving confidentiality while simultaneously promoting the use of health
research data sets. The Library also conducts and supports research and
development related to health data standardization, including the
NLM/AHRQ Large - Scale Vocabulary Test of the extent to which
existing controlled vocabularies meet the needs of computer-based
patient records. NLM is an active participant in the development of
standard s for administrative health data as mandated by the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.
PROGRAM PLANS
- Continue to monitor, promote public discourse, and influence public policy related to access and use of electronic intellectual property and computer-based systems in personal health care, public health, research, and education.
- Promote and support research, development and testing of policy, national standards, institutional procedures, and technical mechanisms for ensuring the confidentiality and security of patient-identifiable health data.
- Work with other Federal agencies and outside organizations to support the establishment, ongoing maintenance, testing, and use of health data standards to enhance the quality of care and improve the data available for research. Use the UMLS Knowledge Sources and programs to facilitate the maintenance and distribution of vocabulary standards .
Last updated: 18 March 2001
First published: 18 March 2001
Metadata| Permanence level: Permanent: Stable Content