B.C. GENDER, SEX, SEXUAL ORIENTATION (GSSO) Health Information Standard

The Ministry of Health Gender, Sex, Sexual Orientation (GSSO) health information systems (HIS) standard and guide aims to support inclusive, equitable, and quality healthcare in B.C. It is intended to support improved delivery of provincial health programs and services, as well as:

• Provide a framework, concepts, definitions, and guidance for the selection of technical artefacts from controlled medical vocabularies/health terminology standards (e.g., SNOMED CT, LOINC) and code values from health information exchange standards (i.e., HL7 International) which are used to share data between HIS,
• Improving culturally safer care and health outcomes for gender diverse communities like transgender, non-binary, and Two-Spirit peoples, and,
• Illustrates how modernized gender and sex information practices can help a wide range of users within healthcare meet their information needs.

The GSSO Standard is meant to support a consistent approach to the ongoing modernization of GSSO information practices in B.C. healthcare, and to assist any B.C. health system provider capture, maintain, and affirm culturally safer care while improving health outcomes for all people, regardless of race, country of origin, gender identity, or socio-economic status through evidence-based design and implementation guidance.

Scope

The scope of this standard is limited to specifying the GSSO data elements that will enable consistency in B.C.’s healthcare system.

These data elements include:

• Gender, including Gender Identity, and components of gender expressions such as Pronouns, and Name to Use.
• Sex, including Sex Assigned at Birth, Sex Parameters for Clinical Use comprised of sex-related anatomy entry, sex-related surgical procedure entry, and medication treatment.
• Sexual Orientation, (sexual orientation identity).
• Administrative data elements such as Administrative Gender (Gender for Administrative Use) and the Health Services Sex and Gender Marker.

Governance

The B.C. Gender, Sex, and Sexual Orientation Standard is governed by the provincial Digital Health Standards Office (DHSO).

For non-health related collection of Gender and Sex data, please refer to the B.C. IMIT standards page:

• Find an IM/IT Standard - Province of British Columbia (gov.bc.ca)

Current Status

Version 3.0 of the standard is published and open to external review.

Comments may be submitted by e-mail to hlth.hissupport@gov.bc.ca

Maintenance

Significant analysis and review of documents and specifications were undertaken to make sure the standards developed would be applicable and attainable to the various stakeholder groups.

Wherever possible, content templates defined and reviewed by standards bodies were referenced, and appropriate constraints for the B.C. context applied.

The content of the standard may require post-production edits, additions and/or maintenance to address issues identified by technical validation. Additional adjustments may be required over time to reflect requirements in B.C. or to align with emerging pan-Canadian standards developments.

Download

• Gender, Sex, Sexual Orientation (GSSO) standard and guidance version 3.0 (PDF, 1.3MB)

 

Last updated: March 31, 2023