The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics was established in 1950 and was made the prime advisor to the Secretary of Health and Human Services in 1996 with respect to the data regarding health status of the American public and the information issues relating to that data. It has issued a recent report “Uniform Data Standards for Patient Record Information” on the issues related to Patient Medical Record Information that underpins its most recent 2001 report “Information for Health: A Strategy for Building the National Health Information Infrastructure -NHII” (Ref D2). The NHII will underpin the 2001  recommendation by the Institute of Medicine for building a new 21^st Century health system for the US (Ref A12). This Committee has several working groups. ( see: http://www.ncvhs.hhs.gov/ncvhsr1.htm).