Standards and Guidelines from Other Organizations

Clinical Guidelines & Position Statements

• ACR–AAPM–SIIM Practice Guideline for Digital Radiography
  American College of Radiology | Published September 20, 2012
  This guideline is applicable to the practice of digital radiography. It defines motivations, qualifications of personnel, equipment guidelines, data manipulation and management,and quality control (QC) and quality improvement procedures for the use of digital radiography that should result in high-quality radiological patient care.
  
  
• ACR–AAPM–SIIM Technical Standard for Electronic Practice of Medical Imaging
  American College of Radiology | Published September 20, 2012
  For the purpose of this technical standard, the images referred to are those that diagnostic radiologists would normally interpret, including transmission projection and cross-sectional X-ray images, ionizing radiation emission images,and images from ultrasound and magnetic resonance modalities.
  
  
• ACR–AAPM–SIIM Practice Guideline for Determinants of Image Quality in Digital Mammography
  American College of Radiology | Published September 20, 2012
  For purposes of this guideline, digital mammography is defined as the radiographic examination of the breast utilizing dedicated electronic detectors to record the image (rather than screen-film) and having the capability for image display on computer monitors.
  
  
• FSMB Model Policy Guidelines for the Appropriate Use of Social Media and Social Networking  in Medical Practice
  ​Federation of State Medical Boards | Published 2012
  Ethical and professional guidance to the FSMB membership with regard to the use of electronic and digital media by physicians (and physician assistants, where appropriate) that may be used to facilitate patient care and nonprofessional interactions. Such electronic and digital media include, but are not limited to, e-mail, texting, blogs and social networks.  
  
  
• Guidelines For Electronic Medical Information Privacy and Security
  American College of Radiology | Published 2012
  These practice guidelines are designed to address privacy and security of electronic medical information for telemedicine and telehealth services.  In May 2010, the ATA board of directors approved adoption of the ACR Practice Guideline for Electronic Medical Information Privacy and Security.
  
  
• AAD Position Statement on Telemedicine
  American Academy of Dermatology Association | Published 2004
  Practitioners who wish to integrate teledermatology into their practice will likely choose between two fundamentally different care delivery platforms (Store and Forward vs. Live Interactive).  Both platforms have strengths and weaknesses.  What follows is a definition of each platform and the respective AADA position.
  
  
• APA Statement On Services By Telephone & Internet
  American Psychological Association | Published November 1997
  Delivery of services by such media as telephone, teleconferencing and internet is a rapidly evolving area. This will be the subject of APA task forces and will be considered in future revision of the Ethics Code. Until such time as a more definitive judgment is available, the Ethics Committee recommends that psychologists follow Standard 1.04c, Boundaries of Competence, which indicates that "In those emerging areas in which generally recognized standards for preparatory training do not yet exist, psychologists nevertheless take reasonable steps to ensure the competence of their work and to protect patients, clients, students, research participants, and others from harm."
  
  
• SAGES Guidelines for the Surgical Practice of Telemedicine
  Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons | Published 2004
  This document provides guidelines for establishing policies and procedures to promote safe, high quality application of telemedicine technology to the practice of surgery.
  
  
• Telenursing Practice Guidelines
  College of Registered Nurses of Nova Scotia | Published 2008
  This document is based largely on the NIFTE framework, as a resource for registered nurses who are providing or considering providing professional nursing services through the use of telehealth technologies.
   
• NIST Standards Related to Telemedicine 
  The National Institute of Standards and Technology 
  NIST is a federal technology agency that develops and promotes measurement, standards, and technology.

 
Technical Standards

• X12N
  X12N is the dominant standard for electronic commerce. The American National Standards Institute Accredited Standards Committee X12 (ASC X12) selected X12N as the standard for electronic data interchange (EDI) used in administrative and financial health care transactions (excluding retail pharmacy transactions) in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Used for external financial transactions, financial coverage verification and insurance transactions and claims.
  
  
• Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine
  DICOM is the industry standard for transferral of radiologic images and other medical information between computers. HL7 is a standard for the electronic interchange of clinical, financial and administrative information among independent health care oriented computer systems; e.g., hospital information systems, clinical laboratory systems, enterprise systems and pharmacy systems.
  
  
• International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
  H.320 encompasses a set of standards for narrow band visual telephone systems and terminal equipment, commonly used in interactive live video applications for telemedicine. It specifies technical requirements for narrow band visual telephone systems and terminal equipment, typically for videoconferencing and videophone services. It describes a generic system configuration consisting of a number of elements, definition of communication modes and terminal types, call control arrangements, terminal aspects and interworking requirements.
  
  
• Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation
  AAMI has a standards program consists of over 100 technical committees and working groups that produce Standards, Recommended Practices and Technical Information Reports for many medical devices.