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Communication secrets of the medical system: What are the surprising stories behind the HL7 standard?
In the world of healthcare, the flow and delivery of data is critical to improving the quality of patient care and overall health system performance. Behind all this is the advantage brought by the Health Level 7 (HL7) standard. These standards not only facilitate the transfer of clinical and administrative data, but also enable effective communication between different medical applications. Next, we'll take a deep dive into the origins of the HL7 standard, its applications, and the surprising stories behind it.
Definition and Purpose of HL7 Standards
Health Level Seven (HL7) is a range of standards that drives the transfer of clinical and administrative health data worldwide. These standards were created by HL7 International to improve patient care outcomes and health system performance.
The HL7 standard focuses on the application layer, which is the "seventh layer" in the Open Systems Interconnection model.
These standards enable different medical systems to communicate by “interfacing” effectively when receiving and retrieving new information. Through HL7, clinical and non-clinical data can be shared and processed in a unified and consistent manner, theoretically improving the quality of patient care and the effectiveness of health systems.
Main standards of HL7
HL7 International considers the following standards to be the most commonly used major standards:
- Version 2.x Message Standard - Interoperability Specification for Health and Medical Transactions
- Version 3 messaging standard - interoperability specification to support all healthcare workflows
- Clinical Document Architecture (CDA)
- Continuity of Care Document (CCD)
- Structured Product Labelling (SPL)
- Clinical Context Object Workgroup (CCOW)
The various HL7 standards and methodologies facilitate the seamless transfer of medical data, allowing healthcare organizations to focus entirely on the needs of their patients.
The Success of HL7 Version 2
HL7 Version 2, also known as Pipehat, is designed to support workflow in hospitals. The version 2 standard has been updated more than a dozen times since it was first established in 1989, and is backwards compatible so that the latest version can understand the message format of earlier versions.
HL7 v2.x messaging standards are currently supported by every major health informatics vendor in the United States.
Each message consists of multiple paragraphs, including the title paragraph (MSH), patient identity (PID), patient access information (PV1), etc. The fields and information presentation methods in each paragraph are strictly standardized.
Advances in HL7 Version 3
Different from version 2, the HL7 version 3 standard aims to support various medical workflows and adopts a more formal methodology (HDF) and object-oriented principles.
The Reference Information Model (RIM) is the cornerstone of the HL7 Version 3 development process and represents the content of data in a specific clinical or administrative context.
These advanced features enable HL7 to be more widely and effectively used in various types of medical systems, thereby improving the flexibility and collaboration of medical care.
The arrival of FHIR
Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) is the latest interoperability specification from HL7 International, designed to simplify the implementation and exchange of medical data. FHIR's modern web technology and API support make it easier to implement, providing an unprecedented open platform to promote data interoperability between various medical systems.
The primary purpose of FHIR is to ensure interoperability between different computing systems, regardless of how those systems store their data.
Future Outlook of HL7
With the rapid development of mobile communication technology and cloud services, HL7 standards will continue to evolve to meet the needs of future data exchange. From electronic health records (EHR) to personal health records (PHR), HL7 standards are shaping the future of healthcare.
The impact of these standards is not limited to the technical level, but also affects the operating efficiency of the entire medical system and patient satisfaction. Not only that, the HL7 standard has promoted better collaboration among medical systems around the world, paving the way for the gradual realization of data-based personalized medicine.
The success story of the HL7 standard in global health data exchange makes us reflect: In today's era of rapid technological advancement, how can we more effectively apply these standards to promote collaboration and innovation in medical technology?
