Please appreciate that I do not have an agenda except insofar as this ballot item may either support or undermine efforts that I've been involved in related to the use of digital health standards to systematically improve care delivery. To be clear – my concern is purely related to the correct and unambiguous recording of sex for clinical use in a medical record. This is needed so that patient safe data processing can be done in support of Computable Care Guidelines, and other promising initiatives that can systemically improve care quality and safety. I remain wholeheartedly supportive of the clear distinction between the sex data element and the separate data element that will capture gender – and I've been an advocate of this clear distinction for a very long while, now, and have devoted time and energy to helping important changes get made (as have so many others on this thread). Each of these distinct data elements is equally important – and each should contain the correct information. It remains my fervent hope that we will not put at risk our ability to provide patient-safe care – to everyone – by not adopting a clear and simple way to code SFCU values. It remains my equally fervent hope that no one will refuse to present for care if, in their electronic record, both the gender data element and SFCU data element are correctly recorded in order to support the use cases for which they're intended.

(Comment 14 - imported by: Ron G. Parker)