Recommendation for HL7 RIM Change
Submitted by: Government Projects SIG
Date submitted: June 25, 2001
Submitter: Mead Walker
RECOMMENDATION ID:
DRAFT (# and date): #1: June 25, 2001
Committee status: Unknown
NAME: Race & Ethnicity Rim Enhancement
STEWARD’S POSITION :
REQUIRED - This table should contain one row for each Steward Committee affected by the
recommendation.
TC
RECOMMENDATION APPROVAL STATUS
AFFECTED ENTITIES OF INTEREST TO TC
(responsibility level: S=Steward; I=Interested)
PA/FM
Unknown
Person
ISSUE:
US public policy requires the collection of information regarding person’s “race” and “ethnicity”
in a number of circumstances. In order to ensure the consistent collection of this information
within the US, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has created guidelines and
definitions for collecting this information. These proposals make it possible for the RIM to
support the US Federal Government definitions for these concepts.
RECOMMENDATION(s):
In the class person:
 Change the datatype for race_cd from CE to SET<CV>
 Change the datatype for ethnicity_cd from CE to SET<CV>
RATIONALE:
These categories are needed to support US government mandated reporting.
DISCUSSION:
In the United States, federal standards for classifying data on race
determine the categories used by federal agencies and exert a strong
influence on categorization by state and local agencies and private sector
organizations. The federal standards do not conceptually define race, and
they recognize the absence of an anthropological or scientific basis for
racial classification. Instead, the federal standards acknowledge that race
is a social-political construct in which an individual's own identification
with one more race categories is preferred to observer identification. The
standards use a variety of features to define five minimum race categories.
Among these features are descent from "the original peoples" of a specified
region or nation. The minimum race categories are American Indian or Alaska
Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific
Islander, and White. The federal standards stipulate that race data need
not be limited to the five minimum categories, but any expansion must be
collapsible to those categories.
In the United States, federal standards for classifying data on ethnicity
determine the categories used by federal agencies and exert a strong
influence on categorization by state and local agencies and private sector
organizations. The federal standards do not conceptually define ethnicity,
and they recognize the absence of an anthropological or scientific basis for
ethnicity classification. Instead, the federal standards acknowledge that
ethnicity is a social-political construct in which an individual's own
identification with a particular ethnicity is preferred to observer
Recommendation for HL7 RIM Change
Submitted by: Government Projects SIG
Date submitted: June 25, 2001
Submitter: Mead Walker
RECOMMENDATION ID:
DRAFT (# and date): #1: June 25, 2001
Committee status: Unknown
NAME: Race & Ethnicity Rim Enhancement
identification. The standards specify two minimum ethnicity categories:
Hispanic or Latino, and Not Hispanic or Latino. The standards define a
Hispanic or Latino as a person of "Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, South or
Central America, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race."
The standards stipulate that ethnicity data need be limited to the two
minimum categories, but any expansion must be collapsible to those
categories. In addition, the standards stipulate that an individual can be
Hispanic or Latino or can be Not Hispanic or Latino, but cannot be both.
RECOMMENDED ACTION ITEMS:
M&M to implement recommendation
RESOLUTION: