Major achievements in science, health, and technology equate to a stronger society armed with greater capabilities. This year, the U.S. celebrates 50 years since the Apollo 11 moon landing, a triumph for humankind. In the half-century since that major feat, new technology has helped empower humanity in other ways from telehealth medical services to the rise of virtual restaurants, and even the promise of reinvented toilets that could support safer societies on a global level. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) reflects on several recent newsworthy achievements made possible with the help of the standardization community.
How Standards Support a Healthier Year
In the health and medical realm, to capture the potential of new technologies as they emerge, ANSI reported how standards support advancements in artificial intelligence for healthcare. The Institute also published articles on how standards can protect vision, how standards play a role in regular exercise, and explained in what way they can support healthier hearts and nutritious meals to combat depression.
This summer, ANSI reported how International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Technical Committee (TC) 215, Health Informatics, developed a technical report on terminology maintenance for medicinal products. ANSI is the U.S. member body to ISO, and currently serves as the ISO TC 215 secretariat and U.S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG) administrator.
In addition, ANSI released its ANSI dietary supplements report that highlighted its May 13 meeting in Washington DC. With feedback from 58 attendees from 37 organizations representing manufacturers, retailers, government agencies, trade and professional associations, consumer organizations, among others, the participants' identified an important goal: to build consumer confidence in dietary supplements and trust throughout the supply chain.
With cannabis legalization on the rise, ANSI and its subsidiary, the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB), announced in August plans to expand cannabis-related standards and conformity assessment activities to foster health, safety, and quality.
Technology and Science Take Off with Standards at the Forefront of Safety
As additive manufacturing continues to grow to support applications such as cosmetic aircraft interior components and other products, greater standardization support will be essential for industries that depend on these components. Additive manufacturing has helped revolutionize the industrial production process, as it produces significantly less waste than traditional manufacturing systems.
America Makes and ANSI in October announced the release of an online, interactive portal to track activity by the standardization community to address the gaps identified in the Standardization Roadmap for Additive Manufacturing (Version 2.0) published in June 2018 by the America Makes & ANSI Additive Manufacturing Standardization Collaborative (AMSC).
And as standardization helps expand drone capabilities, ANSI's Unmanned Aircraft Systems Standardization Collaborative (UASSC) released its report of its September plenary meeting. The gathering was intended to launch the version 2 update to the ANSI UASSC standardization roadmap for UAS. The collaborative still seeks participants.
In science and technology, ANSI this year celebrates 15 years since the launch of the ANSI Nanotechnology Standards Panel (ANSI-NSP) and in October it highlighted significant milestones from the ANSI-NSP timeline.
Earlier in the year, ANSI published Advancing U.S. Industry and Competitiveness for 100 Years and the Innovative Future Ahead to highlight the impact of standardization and conformity assessment on key economic sectors, and released its annual report Expanding to New Horizons, which captures the pulse of leading standardization activities.
These achievements are just a small selection of 2019 news. To read about other news updates, visit ANSI.org.
"Looking ahead to 2020 and beyond, ANSI looks forward to continuing to respond to our community's needs, and partnering with all of you to pursue strategic initiatives that create positive change and opportunities for growth," said S. Joe Bhatia, ANSI president and CEO.
ANSI staff wishes its members, stakeholders, and greater standardization community a happy and healthy new year!
If you have news to share with ANSI to consider for publication in 2020, please email the ANSI communications team at [email protected].