This part of ISO 21549 is applicable to situations in which such data are recorded on or transported by patient
healthcare data cards compliant with the physical dimensions of ID-1 cards defined by ISO 7810.
This part of ISO 21549 specifies the basic structure of the data contained within the data object extended
clinical data, but does not specify or mandate particular data-sets for storage on devices.
In order to facilitate interoperability, whenever an application is built for use in the healthcare domain in
compliance with ISO 21549, data items required for that application shall be drawn from the list of objects
(some of which are extensible) as provided in Clauses 6 and 7. These shall then be used in conjunction with
other data defined in other parts of ISO 21549.
The detailed functions and mechanisms of the following services are not within the scope of this part of
ISO 21549, (although its structures can accommodate suitable data objects specified elsewhere):
? the encoding of free text data;
? security functions and related services, which are likely to be specified by users for data cards depending
on their specific application, for example: confidentiality protection, data integrity protection, and
authentication of persons and devices related to these functions;
? access control services, which may depend on active use of some data card classes such as
microprocessor cards;
? the initialization and issuing process (which begins the operating lifetime of an individual data card, and by
which the data card is prepared for the data to be subsequently communicated to it according to this part
of ISO 21549).
The following topics are therefore beyond the scope of this part of ISO 21549:
? physical or logical solutions for the practical functioning of particular types of data cards;
? how the message is processed further “downstream” of the interface between two systems;
? the form which data takes for use outside the data card, or the way in which such data are visibly
represented on the data card or elsewhere.