HL7 International Anatomical Inventories and Person Characteristics Project

Hello everyone,

In alignment with Canada Health Infoway’s Sex-Gender Working Group Proposed Action Plan to Modernize Gender, Sex and Sexual Orientation Information Practices in Electronic Health Records, the HL7 International Gender Harmony Model, HL7 International Gender Harmony Project and HL7 International Cross-Paradigm Implementation Guide, we are initiating the work required to standardize Anatomical Inventories and Person Characteristics.

Anatomical inventories are faithful representations of the presence or absence of a person’s organs and/or anatomy at a given point in time. Anatomical inventories can be used in conjunction with surgical histories, medication lists and other characteristics and artefacts to support safe, quality, efficient, timely, and effective care for all people, and reduce health disparities.

We have approval for the initial proposal from the HL7 Technical Steering Committee (TSC) and will work together over the coming weeks and months to finalize the Project Scope Statement (PSS) and move it through necessary consensus processes and approvals. This does not prevent us from meeting in the meantime. This work will be carried out as a subgroup of the HL7 International Orders and Observations Working Group and will be supported primarily by volunteer and in-kind contributions. All documentation for this project will be stored on the HL7 International Anatomical Inventories and Person Characteristics Confluence page.

Our aim is to bring diverse voices and experience to this work, and to actively include people with lived and living experience, standards experts, subject matter experts, researchers, care providers and healthcare professionals, vendors, jurisdictional representatives, and community organizations. We hope that you will consider contributing to the success of this work. An expression of your support would be appreciated.

To ensure this process is as easy as possible, we have created two short surveys that you can use to indicate your level of participation and support and preferences for the project and provide comments on the draft PSS. Links to these surveys are provided below.

We will be holding informal meetings to prepare for the project work Thursdays at 12 PT until November 30, 2023. During these meetings, we will be setting up the Confluence page, identifying resources, and conducting other administrative tasks. These meetings will be held via MS Teams.

The project kickoff meeting will be held on December 7 at 0700 PT, results of the project and surveys will be reviewed, and WG meeting details will be finalized. This and future meetings will be held using Zoom.

If you represent an organization that wishes to express support for the project, you may also send a PDF letter of support to Kelly Davison at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Thank you for your time and dedication to this project.
Sincerely,
The HL7 Anatomical Inventories and Person Characteristics Project Team

PSS Feedback Survey
www.surveymonkey.ca/r/BZMZTW8
WG Setup Survey
www.surveymonkey.ca/r/H7PKCNX