HL7 Informative Document: Gender Harmony – Modeling Sex and Gender Representation, Release 1

This specification proposes independent consideration of sex and gender in clinical care documents to improve health outcomes for gender-marginalised individuals and improve data accuracy for sex and gender information in health care systems. Assessing the differences between gender and sex promotes the health of women, men, and people of diverse gender identities of all ages. It also helps avoid systematic errors that generate results with a low validity (if any) in clinical studies.

The Gender Harmony model describes an approach that can improve data accuracy for sex and gender information in health care systems.

Main sections:

· Background

· Scope

· Intended audience

· Current state

· Impact of sex and gender on clinical care

· Sex and gender in quality measurement

· Sex and gender reporting in payment for care

· Sex and gender uses in data analysis

· Modelling sex and gender representation

· Implementation guidance

· Appendix 1: Proposed value sets

· Appendix 2: Gender Harmony Project feedback survey summary report

· Appendix 3: Additional data coding examples