HL7 Standards
Most HL7 standards are not Open Standards, depending on the definition, since the current HL7 International IP Policy requires that an implementer or user be an organizational member of HL7, which requires annual payment of a fee. The revenue model and business plan of HL7 is discussed in HL7 Strategic Initiatives and Implementation Proposal. However, since the earlier policy as described in the Bylaws of October 2002 placed the HL7 protocol specifications in the Public Domain, and under 17 USC § 102 there is no copyright protection for an "idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery", this revised policy may not be enforceable. As of Sept 4, 2012, the HL7 Board of Directors has announced its intention to relax this policy and allow free access and implementation to promote adoption and interoperability, as described in their press release.
Hospitals and other healthcare provider organizations typically have many different computer systems used for everything from billing records to patient tracking. All of these systems should communicate with each other (or "interface") when they receive new information but not all do so. HL7 specifies a number of flexible standards, guidelines, and methodologies by which various healthcare systems can communicate with each other. Such guidelines or data standards are a set of rules that allow information to be shared and processed in a uniform and consistent manner. These data standards are meant to allow healthcare organizations to easily share clinical information. Theoretically, this ability to exchange information should help to minimize the tendency for medical care to be geographically isolated and highly variable.
HL7 develops conceptual standards (e.g., HL7 RIM), document standards (e.g., HL7 CDA), application standards (e.g., HL7 CCOW), and messaging standards (e.g., HL7 v2.x and v3.0). Messaging standards are particularly important because they define how information is packaged and communicated from one party to another. Such standards set the language, structure and data types required for seamless integration from one system to another.
HL7 encompasses the complete life cycle of a standards specification including the development, adoption, market recognition, utilization, and adherence. HL7 International currently asserts that business use of the HL7 standards requires a paid organizational membership in HL7, Inc. HL7 Members can access standards for free, and non-members can buy the standards from HL7, ANSI, or for some standards, ISO.
The Reference Information Model (RIM) and the HL7 Development Framework (HDF) are the basis of the HL7 Version 3 standards development process. RIM is the representation of the HL7 clinical data (domains) and the life cycle of messages or groups of messages. HDF is a project to specify the processes and methodology used by all the HL7 committees for project initiation, requirements analysis, standard design, implementation, standard approval process, etc.
HL7 standards:
- Version 2.x Messaging Standard – an interoperability specification for health and medical transactions
- Version 3 Messaging Standard – an interoperability specification for health and medical transactions, based on RIM
- Version 3 Rules/GELLO – a standard expression language used for clinical decision support
- Arden Syntax – a grammar for representing medical conditions and recommendations as a Medical Logic Module (MLM)
- Clinical Context Object Workgroup (CCOW) – an interoperability specification for the visual integration of user applications
- Claims Attachments – a Standard Healthcare Attachment to augment another healthcare transaction
- Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) – an exchange model for clinical documents, based on HL7 Version 3
- Electronic Health Record (EHR) / Personal Health Record (PHR) – in support of these records, a standardized description of health and medical functions sought for or available
- Structured Product Labeling (SPL) – the published information that accompanies a medicine, based on HL7 Version 3
Read more about this topic: Health Level 7
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