Abstract

An inventory of data standards has been made. The aim was: a. investigate which important classifications and definitions exist for the working areas of the RIVM ; b. investigate which of those classifications and definitions could be useful for or are used within the RIVM. The working areas actually considered are: - public health forecasting ; - environmental forecasting ; - epidemiology ; and economic and social factors of interest to these working areas. The conclusions are: - in many cases standards are difficult to access, except for standards that are widely used ; - standardization in the area of public health exists mainly for diseases and therapeutic and diagnostic actions ; in the area of determinants much less standards could be found, or when present they are less useful since they serve other purposes than public health: - standardization in the area of environmental protection is in rapid development, stimulated by internationalization ; - within RIVM different opinions exist regarding the usefulness of standards and of this inventory availability of data is considered to be of more importance ; - this inventory does not pretend to be complete, but it provides an overview of what is available on the subjects considered ; - this inventory is a product of its time ; standards are revised regularly.