In the healthcare industry, the importance of accurate data exchange cannot be overestimated. Specialists need to access various records, databases, and other pieces of information that allow making the right decisions. Special standards are used for this purpose, including HL7 FHIR. Find out more about this standard.
What Is HL7?
This term has two meanings. The first one applies to Health Level Seven International, which is an organization that releases various standards related to the exchange of digital healthcare data. HL7-integrated healthcare software can be utilized to achieve the most accurate results and flawless data exchange. The second term stands for a set of standards released by this organization. There have been several of them, including FHIR.
What Is FHIR?
It is a standard released by HL7. The process of developing this standard began in 2012 in response to the market needs for quicker, easier, and more convenient methods related to data exchange in the healthcare industry. Previous standards released by HL7 were used by specialists to create a new one. It was designed with greater functionality to satisfy the needs of the growing market.
In particular, this standard also includes RESTful web services. Various formats can be seamlessly used when storing or sending data, such as XML and JSON. In essence, this protocol defines how healthcare data can be exchanged between several computer systems. In this case, it does not matter how data is stored in these systems. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services obligated the parties under its regulation to use FHIR from the middle of 2021.
Conclusion
FHIR is a newer standard of HL7, which has a range of benefits over the previous versions released by this organization. Therefore, it is recommended to use it in various medical facilities that need to exchange data across multiple computer systems. Professional developers can help out with its implementation.
