ISO 21549-5:2008 establishes a common framework for the content and the structure of identification data held on healthcare data cards. It specifies the basic structure of the data, but does not specify particular data-sets for storage on devices.
The detailed functions and mechanisms of the following services are not within the scope of ISO 21549-5:2008 (although its structures can accommodate suitable data objects elsewhere specified):
- security functions and related services that are likely to be specified by users for data cards depending on their specific application, e.g., confidentiality protection, data integrity protection and authentication of persons and devices related to these functions;
- access control services that may depend on active use of some data card classes such as microprocessor cards;
- the initialization and issuing process (which begins the operating lifetime of an individual data card, and by which the data card is prepared for the data to be subsequently communicated to it according to ISO 21549-5:2008.