A scientific and technical organization, founded in 1898, for the development of standards on characteristics and performance of materials, products, systems, and services, and the promotion of related knowledge. It is the world’s largest source of voluntary concensus standards. It originally concerned itself with industrial materials, but its scope has broadened to include, for example, medical devices and services, standardized investigation of sexual assault, ambulance driving standards, civilian search and rescue operations, and the computer-based medical record (CPR).