This year’s Meeting Standards campaign took place between 22 and 30 June, organized by Small Business Standards (SBS). The week culminated in the SBS Awards 2026, the inaugural SBS Awards ceremony that recognizes the experts and standards that strengthen the role of small and medium-sized enterprises in European standardization. The Standard of the Year 2025 was won by EN ISO 27799:2026 ‘Health informatics’, developed by CEN/TC 251.
EN ISO 27799:2026 represents a major advancement in health information security. The standard provides comprehensive guidance on information security and management practices for the healthcare sector, while updating security controls to align with ISO/IEC 27002:2022 and the realities of today's digital healthcare landscape, including remote care environments.
A key strength of the standard lies in its risk-based and scalable approach. It enables organizations of different sizes to implement appropriate security measures without imposing requirements designed for large hospital infrastructures on smaller providers. As a result, robust information security and compliance become more attainable for SMEs operating in the rapidly growing health-tech sector.
Throughout the development process, SBS strongly advocated for security controls that are both proportionate and practical, ensuring that the standard remains relevant to European SMEs as they respond to evolving regulatory requirements, including those stemming from the NIS2 Directive. By providing a recognized framework for information security, the standard will help health-tech SMEs demonstrate their compliance and reliability, strengthening their position in an increasingly competitive market.
The standard was published by CEN/TC 251 ‘Health informatics’. The TC’s work aims to ensure that health information can be shared securely and efficiently between independent systems while maintaining high standards of safety, security, and quality. Through its focus on interoperability and trusted data exchange, CEN/TC 251 plays a key role in enabling modern, connected healthcare services and supporting the wider European health data ecosystem. Jennifer Ogbonna, the project manager of CEN/TC 251, accepted the award on behalf of the experts working on EN ISO 27799:2026.
We thank and congratulate all the experts and stakeholders who contributed to the development and publication of this important standard, which will play a vital role in strengthening health information security and trust across Europe's healthcare ecosystem. We also thank SBS for this recognition and for continuing to support standards for SMEs.
