PHIG Open Standards

PHIG StandardsOpen standards programmeFree · CC BY 4.0 · DOI

Some standards that health facilities need are published by nobody, or only behind a paywall. The Public Health Institute of Georgia, with Accréditation Sans Frontières and the Georgian Medical Journal, develops them in the open: an expert Technical Committee drafts, the public reviews, every comment is answered, and the published standard is free for any facility, regulator or accreditation body to use.

Public Health Institute of Georgia · Standards owner and secretariatAccréditation Sans Frontières · Accreditation partner — adopts published standardsGeorgian Medical Journal · Publisher of record — DOI, peer review, archive

Standards in developmentCurrent projects

PHIG 1001 — International Patient and Medical Travel Safety

What a facility treating patients from abroad, a medical travel facilitator, and the clinician who receives the patient at home must do — before travel, during care, at discharge and after return. · Supports ASF 24, ASF 42, ASF 45

Step 2 of 7 — Committee

PHIG 1002 — Non-Surgical Aesthetic Practice Safety and Emergency Readiness

Requirements for clinics and practitioners providing botulinum toxin, dermal fillers, threads, lasers and energy-based devices, peels and similar treatments — competence, consent, premises, emergency readiness and traceability. · Supports ASF 32, ASF 53, ASF 54

Step 2 of 7 — Committee

PHIG 1003 — Cosmetic Surgery Safety and Cosmetic Travel

Facility, surgeon and cross-border requirements for cosmetic (aesthetic) surgery, with a travel module for patients who travel for surgery and a pathway for the clinicians who receive them on return. · Supports ASF 55, ASF 24, ASF 2

Step 2 of 7 — Committee

How a PHIG Standard is madeThe seven-step pathway

The pathway follows the structure used by national standards bodies for health services. A standard cannot skip a step, and the public review is never shorter than 60 days.

1. Identify

2. Committee

3. Study

4. Consensus

5. Public Review

6. Approve

7. Publish

Step	What happens
1. Identify	A need is identified — by a health facility, an accreditation body, a professional society, patients or the public — and a project proposal is submitted and accepted.
2. Committee	An open call for experts is issued and a Technical Committee is formed: clinicians, patients and families, researchers, quality and safety specialists, and a methodologist, with declared interests and a chair who holds no role in any accreditation body.
3. Study	The Technical Committee reviews the evidence and existing international and national guidance, and prepares a working draft of the standard.
4. Consensus	The Technical Committee approves a draft for public review by formal consensus. Without this consensus the standard does not progress.
5. Public Review	The draft is published here for a review period of at least 60 days. Anyone may comment, section by section. Every comment is recorded.
6. Approve	The Technical Committee considers every comment, publishes a comment-disposition ("What we heard") report, amends the draft and votes on the final text.
7. Publish	The standard is published free of charge under a Creative Commons licence with a DOI, a suggested citation and a review date no later than four years after publication.

Rules that apply to every standard

Open and free. Drafts and published standards are on this site at no cost; published standards are licensed CC BY 4.0 so that any organisation, including accreditation bodies, may adopt them.
International sources. Standards cite WHO, UN and other international bodies, international standards and peer-reviewed literature; national rules are used as evidence, never as the requirement.
Balanced committee, declared interests. 12–20 members, patients and families included, a methodologist, a chair with no role in any accreditation body; all interests published; conflicted members do not vote on affected criteria.
Consensus, documented. Formal consensus (≥75% agreement in anonymous voting, threshold fixed in advance) is required to open public review and to approve the final text; the method follows the ACCORD reporting guideline for consensus and the RIGHT guideline for the published document.
Every comment answered. A comment-disposition ("What we heard") report is published after each public review.
Published in GMJ. The Georgian Medical Journal publishes the standard with a DOI, after independent peer review, with the Editor-in-Chief recused where he holds a role in a partner organisation.
Reviewed within four years. Every standard carries a review date; a safety signal or a new international guideline triggers an earlier review.

Call for experts

Join a Technical Committee. Open to any country and discipline; patients and families are especially welcome.

Full name *

E-mail *

Organisation / affiliation *

Country *

Role *

Standard(s) you wish to join *

Relevant expertise and experience (max 1,500 characters) *

Declaration of interests * — paid work, grants, shares, or positions with any manufacturer, facility, facilitator, accreditation or certification body relevant to this standard in the last 3 years (write "None" if none)

I agree that my name, affiliation and declaration of interests will be published if I am appointed to a Technical Committee, and that my data are processed by PHIG for this purpose only.

Propose a standard

Tell us about a standard the sector needs and nobody publishes. Accepted proposals enter the pathway at step 1.

Secretariat: info@accreditation.ge · Published standards and all openly available international guidance are catalogued in the GMJ Guidelines Library.