The Standard

HL7^® International, the global authority on interoperability of health information technology with members in 55 countries, today announced the appointment of two new members to the HL7 board of directors to serve a two-year term: Aashima Gupta, director, global healthcare solutions, Google Cloud; Judy Wawira Gichoya, M.D., M.S., assistant professor, radiology and imaging sciences, Emory University School of Medicine.

“These leaders represent a critical cross section of global stakeholders who are committed to advancing health through information technology. We are delighted to welcome them to the HL7 board of directors,” said Charles Jaffe, M.D., Ph.D., CEO of HL7. “Their strategic expertise and diverse experience will contribute greatly to HL7’s goal of improving the quality of care and reducing costs by overcoming the barriers to interoperability.”

By Brian Douthit; Charles Jaffe, MD, PhD; Viet Nguyen, MD; and Titus Schleyer, DMD, PhD

Originally starting as an application showcase in 2018, the FHIR Apps Competition has become one of the most popular sessions at the AMIA Annual Symposium. From clinical decision support and health information exchange to problem-oriented displays and back-end data exchange, HL7 FHIR is enabling innovation across a whole range of health IT domains.

AMIA and HL7 recently reinvigorated their partnership to emphasize the importance of health data standards in informatics, and engage the AMIA implementer community in leveraging FHIR for research, patient care and education. The competition is intended to highlight the best and most innovative FHIR implementations – if you are planning to attend the Annual Symposium this year, you don’t want to miss it!

Opportunity to Advance Your Career with an HL7 Informatics Internship

• Remote-based/online internship
• $5,000 USD monthly stipend
• 12-16 weeks
• Must be eligible to work in the United States

We want to hire and mentor a motivated informatics trainee who wants to learn, contribute, and advance the industry’s approach to solving the thorny problems of health data interoperability. This internship will focus specifically on synthesizing best practices for using standard terminologies within HL7’s specifications. You will be working with world-class experts, learning how consensus-driven standards are transforming data exchange, and building a key resource for the global health standards community.

To our HL7 International community,

The past two years have been challenging for all of us, and now the world is faced with the unfolding conflict in Eastern Europe.

We are sure that the events of the past 24 hours have left you, as they have us, saddened.

HL7 has a long-standing history of global participation, support and collaboration from across the world. We are proud to have such a united community dedicated to the advancement of interoperability and the betterment of healthcare across the world. Our mutual goals and passion have brought together individuals from diverse communities who have created strong bonds and friendships through their work within HL7.

On behalf of the HL7 US Realm Steering Committee (USRSC), we are pleased to share an update on last year's priorities and highlight our focus for 2022.

2021 Highlights

Visibility was a key theme of our work in 2021 and included supporting pilot work on a standards dashboard, tracking accelerator activity and promoting key ballots.

Before we dive into 2022, we want to highlight a few key points for all US Realm (USR) members.

• SMART v2: published new guidance on granular controls
• Bulk Data v2: published with numerous new features 
• Errata release of Consolidated CDA (C-CDA): companion guide to support January 2022 ballot  
• C-CDA Companion Guide: January 2022 ballot to add USCDI v2 guidance
• US FHIR Core - January 2022 ballot: to add USCDI v2 guidance
• Hosted reviews on HL7 Standards Dashboard Prototype
• C-CDA Web Publishing Trial Draft using FHIR Structure Definition
• Facilitated US@ project with ONC team

The Organization Welcomes Daniel Vreeman, D.P.T., Viet Nguyen, M.D., and Diego Kaminker

The Next Generation Standard Has Transformed Health Information Technology Across the Globe

HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®), the widely adopted, open-source standard from the HL7 International community, celebrates 10 years of international development and implementation. With the ability to streamline the many variations in health information technology (HIT) systems and the capacity to accommodate modern technology, FHIR is at the forefront of healthcare interoperability. In keeping with HL7’s vision of a world where access to health data is readily available to everyone whenever and wherever it is needed, FHIR creates connections between different parts of the healthcare system to facilitate the secure, real-time exchange of data and, ultimately, improve patient care.

Since its inception, FHIR has fostered a collaborative culture. HL7 International Chief Executive Officer Charles Jaffe, M.D., Ph.D., recalls, "The development and adoption of FHIR was advanced by a remarkable and committed international community. The impact that FHIR has had on global healthcare was driven by an unprecedented level of collaboration that today continues to grow." Grahame Grieve, principal at Health Intersections, FHIR product director at HL7 and the inventor of FHIR, agrees. “Most people think about FHIR as a technical specification, but I look at it first of all as a community.”

Alliance of government, private sector and philanthropic partners aims to use widely accepted healthcare standard to help advance public health

A new initiative launched by HL7 and jointly supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) seeks to use widely recognized data exchange standards to help advance public health. The effort, called Helios, intends to strengthen the capacity and streamline data sharing across all levels of public health using the HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability (FHIR®) standard.

“Public health has risen in urgency and importance over the last 18 months,” said the ONC’s National Coordinator for Health IT Micky Tripathi, PhD, MPP, “FHIR accelerators have had great success in engaging implementers as early as possible to help identify and overcome longstanding barriers to interoperability. The Helios alliance is a market-based implementation collaboration that will help to ensure FHIR development is coordinated and focused on real world public health needs.”

The initiative is the latest to use HL7’s FHIR Accelerator program, which seeks to speed the development and availability of FHIR to deliver better data that leads to better health outcomes. The Helios alliance represents an ambitious new use of the FHIR Accelerator program, pulling together a diverse group of state, tribal, local, territorial, and Federal public health agencies, private and philanthropic sector partners, and other groups interested in the equitable and effective use of data for the advancement of public health.