|
HL7 and Healthcare Industry |
|
|
By: |
|
Amanda Knapp |
On: |
|
April 13, 2010 |
|
|
|
|
| What does the acronym HL7 stand for? |
|
|
HL7 stands for Health Level Seven. It is an all-volunteer non-profit organization which works towards the development of the international healthcare standards. This organization was founded in the year 1987 in order to produce a standard for the different hospital information systems. The organization named HL7, Inc. was accredited in 1994 by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Thus, this organization is one of the several different American National Standards Institute (ANSI) -accredited Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs) which operate in the field of healthcare. Most of these organizations are known to form standards related to different healthcare domains such as pharmacy, medical devices, imaging, etc. Health Level Seven is the organization which is responsible for forming standards in the domain of clinical and administrative data.
|
|
 |
|
|
| At times the acronym may be used to refer to some of the specific standards that may be created by the organization, for example, HL7v2, v3, etc. The organization and the members involved therein are primarily working towards providing a framework and towards the development of different related standards in order to ensure exchange, integration, sharing as well as retrieval of the electronic health information. The framework and standards therein are capable of supporting the clinical practice and the management delivery and they are also employed for facilitating the evaluation of the different health related services. |
|
| The organization comprises of different experts and scientists from the field of healthcare who collaborate at a common platform for the development of different standards for regulating the exchange, integration and retrieval of the electronic health information. These standards are particularly aimed at increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the delivery of the healthcare for the benefit of all. This organization may be described as an international community of different experts and it thus operates as a global organization. This international community or organization is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, US. The affiliate organizations of this international community exist in more than 40 countries. The organization comprises board of directors, a chief executive officer and the working group comprising specified members. The standard protocol is defined by the working group of the organization and the working group generally comprises of standing administrative committees and working groups. The role played by the standing administrative committees of this organization is that they maintain a focus on the organizational or promotional activities such as education, implementation, marketing, etc. The committee also contributes towards clinical research, publishing, process improvement as well as tooling. |
|
| The working groups of HL7 are primarily responsible for the content of the standards and thus help in framing the actual language of the different specifications. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|