The Standard

Introduction

  Questions to Address:

• How can we build interoperability into this process with HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) – automating trial matching by fitting patient data and clinical trial criteria together like puzzle pieces?  

• Two separate-but-related teams within one of the world’s leading health data standards organizations are independently addressing aspects of this complicated puzzle.  Through more standardized patient medical records and machine-readable, digital clinical trial protocols, we can make progress toward a future state where trial matching is more accurate and seamless. You can be part of the journey!  

Early Bird Registration Ends Soon

Time is running out to take advantage of early bird registration discounts for an upcoming three-day online educational event that will offer practical insights on how to implement Health Level Seven's (HL7®) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) application program interfaces (APIs).

Early bird discounts end March 31 for the event, “Strategy to Execution: Better Prior Authorization by Integrating Operations, FHIR and CMS-0057.”

Two days of interactive content delivery and demonstrations will be followed by a collaborative Connectathon testing event on day three that will provide implementers and developers with the opportunity to test FHIR-based solutions and exchange data with other FHIR interfaces.

If you’re looking to fast-track your organization’s efforts to use HL7 FHIR APIs to automate workflow, maximize efficiency and meet federal requirements of the CMS Interoperability and Prior Authorization Final Rule (CMS-0057-F), then don’t miss this virtual, hands-on training and testing event.

Thanks to the dedicated efforts of Gravity Project’s community members, volunteers, and staff, we made significant progress in advancing standards for Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) in 2024 that will shape the future of health data sharing.

Key Achievements

Gravity focuses on developing consensus-based standards that enhance data interoperability for SDOH. Our terminology, technical, and implementation workstreams all made notable progress in 2024 that we can leverage this year.  We provided valuable resources and guidance to help implementers adopt Gravity terminology effectively.

One of our standout initiatives was a six-week discovery project in February 2024, where over 20 cross-sector stakeholders collaborated to explore social care payment and reporting standards. This effort not only resulted in a comprehensive report but also fostered a deeper understanding of the landscape surrounding social care.

March 26 Session Features Demonstration and Lessons Learned from Cognizant and Infor

What’s the most effective way to streamline the exchange of data among providers and payers for a wide variety of purposes? Find out at the next HL7 Da Vinci Project Community Roundtable: “Transforming Healthcare End-to-End Data Conversations.”

This free webinar, to be held at 4 p.m. ET on March 26, will show how two Da Vinci member organizations are working together to transform provider/payer data conversations by applying Health Level Seven's (HL7®) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) application programming interface (API) standard.

In addition to a demonstration, presenters will address the lessons learned so far in using the FHIR Implementation Guides for Coverage Requirements Discovery (CRD), Documentation Templates and Rules (DTR), Prior Authorization Support (PAS), Clinical Data Exchange (CDex), and Data Exchange for Quality Measures (DEQM), including Gaps in Care.  

Join the Vulcan FHIR® Accelerator on March 26 as we kick off a monthly forum inviting open dialogue on the development of a HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) implementation guide (IG) for the exchange of a digital clinical trial protocol. Input across the broader HL7 community will help ensure a more robust and widely applicable IG.

About

The Utilizing the Digital Protocol (UDP) project focuses on developing a FHIR IG for exchange of protocols aligned to ICH M11 (Clinical electronic Structured Harmonized Protocols). UDP is an umbrella project to accelerate exchange of ICH M11 compliant protocols through collaboration and integration of work products across Vulcan, CDISC and TransCelerate.     

Vulcan’s UDP team will:

• Provide regular project updates, offering a touchpoint for stakeholders who want to stay informed.
• Create a platform for discussion, allowing community members to raise questions, share insights, and engage more directly.

HL7, in collaboration with the Argonaut Project, is excited to announce the launch of a new website dedicated to the International Patient Access (IPA) standard:ipa.hl7.org. This site is designed to provide a central resource for healthcare organizations, policymakers and patients to understand, implement and support patient-controlled access to health data using the HL7® FHIR® standard.

A Milestone for Global Interoperability

IPA is a global standard aimed at empowering patients with access to their health records across different systems and countries. By defining a minimal yet meaningful set of FHIR-based profiles, IPA ensures that applications can seamlessly retrieve patient data regardless of geographic or system-specific differences.

The new website serves as a hub for information about IPA adoption, implementation guidance and ongoing development efforts. It provides insights into how healthcare systems worldwide can enable secure, authorized access to patient records through standardized APIs, reducing barriers to interoperability.

The HIMSS25 Conference, to be held March 3-6 in Las Vegas, will offer numerous opportunities to learn more about the important interoperability work of Health Level Seven International’s Da Vinci Project.

Project members will describe how the HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, or FHIR, standard can be used to support and integrate value-based care data exchange across communities.

Thanks to participating Da Vinci members AWS, Availity, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Epic, Humana, 1UpHealth, Cognizant, healow and InterSystems, Da Vinci will host a kiosk and five 20-minute thought leadership sessions in the Interop and Smart Pavilion, located in Caesars Forum, Academy Ballroom. Da Vinci also will be presenting three sessions at the HL7 anchor space.

Plus, Da Vinci will be presenting two 60-minute general education sessions.

This year, the HIMSS Conference will be held in three venues. In addition to Caesars Forum, events will take place at the Venetian Convention and Expo Center and Wynn Las Vegas.

For a complete schedule of events featuring Da Vinci content, at HIMSS25, visit: https://confluence.hl7.org/spaces/DVP/pages/325452688/Da+Vinci+at+HIMSS25

Da Vinci’s Feb. 26 Community Roundtable and Feb. 27 Joint Education Session with FAST to provide implementation resources.

Two free online events coming up soon will provide practical insights on how to improve interoperability by leveraging Health Level Seven’s Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) standard for APIs.

A Community Roundtable, to be held at 4 p.m. ET on Feb. 26, will focus on “Da Vinci’s Trebuchet: Launching Your Interoperability Implementations.”

The HL7 Da Vinci Project is a private-sector initiative that’s leveraging FHIR to improve data sharing in value-based care (VBC) arrangements. The goal of Da Vinci’s Trebuchet effort is to accelerate FHIR adoption and scaling of FHIR APIs through pilot projects.

Attendees at this month’s Community Roundtable will receive information to equip them with the knowledge and resources needed to successfully launch an implementation journey.

Pilot leaders and a panel of payer and provider implementers will share their expertise. After a level-setting session that reviews the purpose and current state of Trebuchet pilots, presenters will describe what’s involved with piloting and how to determine your organization’s readiness.

Attendees will learn about key elements of finding or creating a pilot, including identifying other parties of the willing, the role of vendors in your pilot design, Qualified Health Information Network (QHIN) and Health Information Network (HIN) implications and how your current trading partners fit into your vision. The session will conclude with a panel of payers and providers who will share their piloting journey.

Register Today for the February Community Roundtable! 

To register and attend this free webinar, visit:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_T5IyY_NQQLybrIZdQ0zifw#/registration 

Second Event

The second event, to be held at 2 p.m. ET on Feb. 27, will be a joint session of FAST and Da Vinci focusing on alignment of Trebuchet and network exchange goals.

FAST stands for the FHIR at Scale Taskforce (FAST) Accelerator, which is working to identify ecosystem-wide barriers to deploying FHIR at scale, define solutions to address those barriers and develop infrastructural standards to support FHIR implementations. The desired outcome is a national API interoperability approach that enables consistent clinical data exchange using FHIR. 

The FAST Security Implementation Guide (IG) supports a multi-party trust framework within payer-payer and payer-provider networks. It supports implementing dynamic client registration in scalable exchange.

David Pyke, FAST technical director, will discuss the FAST IG with a focus on the implementer’s perspective, including:

• What to consider before and during implementation of the IG
• What is of primary importance as you begin and progress through implementation
• For payers, providers and vendors: What are the implications and experiences of the client, vendors and EHRs.

To attend, access the Zoom link on this page under the  Conference Call Schedule and Dial-ins section: https://confluence.hl7.org/display/DVP/Da+Vinci+Trebuchet+FHIR+Pilots   

Don’t miss these two opportunities to learn how to implement FHIR as a critical component of ramping up the exchange of clinical data to improve the quality of care.

HL7 Europe was one of 73 organizations participating in the READi project kick-off meeting held in late January in Madrid, Spain. HL7 Europe is thrilled and ready to engage with partners across 18 countries to work towards enhancing Patient Representativeness and Inclusion in Clinical Research. HL7 will participate in standards alignment and interoperability as well as communication, sustainability, and stakeholder engagement. READi Consortium press release

This six-year Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking (IHI JU) project aims to enhance the representativeness of underserved (US) and underrepresented (UR) populations in clinical studies by fostering a more cohesive and integrated clinical study ecosystem.

HL7 International is pleased to announce the appointment of three distinguished members to its 2025 Board of Directors.

These new appointees bring a wealth of industry leadership and expertise across data standards, artificial intelligence and clinical innovation, and will serve a two-year term:

• Christopher Longhurst, M.D., M.S., FACMI, chief clinical and innovation officer, University of California, San Diego (UCSD)
  Longhurst is a nationally recognized leader in clinical informatics and digital health innovation. As the chief clinical and innovation officer at UCSD, Dr. Longhurst oversees a broad portfolio, including the Offices of the Chief Medical Officer, Quality and Patient Safety, Care Management, Information Services, and the Jacobs Center for Health Innovation, where he leads AI initiatives for personalized medicine and health equity. His leadership in developing cutting-edge health IT aligns with HL7’s mission to empower global health interoperability.
  
  
• Genevieve Melton-Meaux, M.D., Ph.D., FACMI, director, Center for Learning Health System Sciences, University of Minnesota
  Melton-Meaux is an accomplished leader in clinical informatics and AI implementation. With extensive research on learning health systems and digital transformation, she has pioneered strategies that optimize health IT and promote evidence-based care. The current chair of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), her global recognition in AI-driven healthcare innovation underscores HL7’s dedication to advancing intelligent, interoperable solutions.