World Standards Day 2024 Cultivates Collaboration for Building an Equitable Future for Health and Well-Being

Every 14 October, the international community celebrates World Standards Day (WSD), recognizing the importance of global standards and the thousands of people and organizations in the standards community, including volunteers, businesses, industry, academia, and government. Collaboration between people is essential for achieving shared goals. Fittingly, in 2024 we celebrate the theme, “Building an Equitable Future for Health and Well-Being.”

This year, the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA) also reaffirms its commitment to addressing challenges and global issues associated with human-centric digital transformation. Standards impact and improve all services, technologies, and communities. From devices to networks, oceans to villages, and hospitals to homes, standards help ensure safety, connectivity, and accessibility for all.

Measures of well-being and health are an index of societal progress. These measures can be objective, such as life expectancy, socio-economic development, environment, and safety, or subjective, like happiness. The IEEE SA is committed to supporting the development of sociotechnical standards that serve as a solid foundation for an equitable future for health and well-being.

IEEE SA fosters collaborations, investigates and pinpoints market requirements, shares industry knowledge, and develops new standards. It provides an open platform for volunteers from around the globe and currently maintains more than 2,100 standards and projects across a wide variety of industries and technologies.

Humans interact daily with numerous technologies based on dozens of standards without knowing it. The positive impact of this is that, in all aspects of life, standards act as the support behind the scenes, helping enable new and emerging technologies to function safely, securely, and sustainably.

Here are just some of the many IEEE Standards that help make a difference in the world:

IEEE 2089™-2021 provides an age-appropriate Digital Services Framework based on the 5Rights Principles for Children.

Along with a host of other standards, including IEEE P2089.1™ – IEEE Standard for Online Age Verification, this framework helps to address data governance, establish privacy and protection for children online, and support the building of global digital competency.

• A Primer for Education Thought Leadership: The Benefits of a Multidisciplinary Lens for Artificial Intelligence Systems Ethics
• IEEE 3527.1™ – Standard for Digital Intelligence (DQ); Framework for Digital Literacy, Skills, and Readiness

Transforming the Telehealth Paradigm: Sustainable Connectivity, Accessibility, Privacy, and Security for All

Now in its third year, this Industry Connections activity offers an open and collaborative platform for a global community of multidisciplinary experts to bridge gaps and barriers to help achieve improved outcomes and more equitable healthcare solutions.

• 3rd Annual IEEE Telehealth Pitch Competition – Digital Health Innovation Challenge
• IEEE Medical Device Cybersecurity Certification Program

The IEEE CertifAIEd AI Ethics Program certifies social responsibility in Autonomous and Intelligent Systems (AIS) and affirms an organization’s commitment to upholding human values, dignity, and well-being, and to respecting, protecting, and preserving fundamental human rights.

• IEEE Conformity Assessment Program Offers Benefits Beyond Standards Compliance
• Prioritizing People and Planet as the Metrics for Responsible AI—Ethically Aligned Design for Business

IEEE 7000™-2021: IEEE Standard Model Process for Addressing Ethical Concerns During System Design

The IEEE 7000™ standards series focuses on ethics in engineering, including data privacy, children’s data governance, algorithmic bias, and many others. At the heart of this practical collection of sociotechnical standards is Value-Based Engineering (VbE), which provides a framework for considering human and social values.

• GET Program – IEEE Introduces Free Access to AI Ethics and Governance Standards
• The IEEE Global Initiative 2.0 on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems

IEEE P3442™: Standard for Multimodal Logistics Corridors for Resilient Food Supply

Agri-food systems need to be resilient against a backdrop of climate change, pandemics, and global conflicts; this standard addresses the delivery and accessibility of safe and nutritious food to human beings by streamlining the sector’s transportation and logistics systems through the adoption of a smart multimodal corridor approach.

• Industry Connections: Enabling a Smart and Equitable Agriculture Ecosystem
• Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security

Dignity, Inclusion, Identity, Trust, and Agency (DIITA)

This Industry Connections activity designs and develops trust-enabling solutions for those traditionally excluded from cyberspace due to affordability, availability, discrimination, or concern for safety. DIITA gives a voice to the underserved and vulnerable by creating transparent standards that are inclusive of their needs, safeguards their personal dignity and privacy, and integrates social inclusion and gender equality.

• IEEE P3337™: Standard for Requirements for Designing Accessible Intelligent Cyber-Physical Systems (AICS) for Well-Being
• IEEE P2998™: Recommended Practice for Building Accessible Applications

To learn more about World Standards Day and to play the WSD Connections game for a chance to win a $500 prize (until 14 November 2024 at 11:59pm ET), visit the IEEE SA World Standards Day Website.