FHIR + HL7 Magic: Elevate Your Healthcare Apps and Data

Mastering FHIR + HL7 Integration

To manage their everyday processes, latest healthcare providers depend on a vast network of partners and a diverse range of apps and data. Their success depends on their ability to integrate these apps and data, which enables them to provide effective and efficient patient care.

Due to the sensitive and complicated nature of the data involved, the healthcare sector has fallen behind even with the advancements in data transformation and integration technologies that have enabled quicker and simpler data transmission between applications. The fact that some healthcare data are still transferred in physical format actually prevents providers from taking use of automation and integration.

Describe HL7

A set of international standards called Health Level Seven (HL7) was created to address this issue. A group of technology and healthcare professionals called Health Level Seven International developed the standards, which were first launched in 1989 with the intention of improving hospital workflow assistance. For the purpose of enhancing interoperability in healthcare, HL7 has offered a common set of patient traits and clinical events.

The FHIR Standard: What Is It?

HL7 has been updated to the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource (FHIR).

The FHIR protocol establishes guidelines for the interchange of healthcare data, encompassing the transfer of medical records across various computer systems, irrespective of their storage type. Electronic health records (EHRs) and electronic medical records (EMRs) can be exchanged via an application programming interface (API), which is described in the FHIR standard along with data components, communications, and document formats. Since FHIR offers open APIs, continuous real-time data sharing is made possible.

What advantages does FHIR offer?

Even if a patient uses many plans (many payers utilizing numerous EHRs) and sees multiple physicians in various healthcare organizations, FHIR makes it easier for them to manage their treatment. FHIR standards provide a comprehensive picture of patient information to enhance overall care coordination and clinical decision support by establishing a single, unified personal patient health record that combines data from various formats. More efficient, individualized, integrated, and economical healthcare options are advantageous to everybody.

What distinctions exist between HL7 and FHIR?

FHIR employs popular web standards including RESTful APIs, XML, JSON, and HTTP and pulls on earlier standards like HL7 Version 2 (V2) and HL7 Version 3 (V3). FHIR is more efficient when REST APIs are used since they let data consumers request information on demand instead of having to subscribe to a feed that shares all data, regardless of whether it is needed right away (as was the situation with previous HL7 versions).

Mobile apps, cloud-based communications, EHR-based data sharing, real-time server connectivity, and other applications may all be utilized using the HL7 FHIR REST API. Software developers may create uniform browser-based healthcare apps with FHIR, enabling consumers to access clinical data from any healthcare system on any device or operating system.

FHIR offers out-of-the-box compatibility and is simpler to understand and use than previous iterations. Different architectural strategies that can be utilized to obtain data from a contemporary or old system are also permitted under the FHIR standard.

Is HL7 and FHIR compatible?

Organizations should switch to FHIR to take advantage of the new approach for health information data interchange, even if it is compatible with HL7 V2 and CDA standards. Nonetheless, a lot of providers continue to use older iterations of the HL7 standard, so some IT teams aren’t sure if they need update or rework their current apps to support HL7 V2.

Fusion with IBM and FHIR

Without requiring the rewriting of current programs, IBM App Connect can convert HL7 to FHIR in both directions. It can transfer medical records between systems, including an EHR functioning as an FHIR server.

A specific version of IBM App Connect designed for the healthcare sector is called IBM App Connect for Healthcare. It provides pre-built patterns for intelligent routing and transformation of FHIR. The ability of the patterns to transform FHIR into any other format gives healthcare companies the chance to take use of the advantages of FHIR and investigate cutting-edge integration techniques, such as event-driven architectures. With IBM API Connect, health IT providers can establish, administer, protect, and socialize FHIR APIs, expanding the reach of these resources for a variety of use cases.