HL7 – Health Level 7 Information

HL7 Intro

If you’re reading this, chances are you work in the healthcare industry and have been charged with finding out how you and your organization can become HL7 enabled.  The only problem: you don’t actually know what HL7 is!

Health Level 7

Well, the first thing you probably want to do as you begin your HL7 journey is to find out exactly what (or who) this magical sounding HL7 Organization is and why they create the Health Level 7 standard.

HL7 Organization

Health Level Seven (HL7), according to wikipedia, is an all-volunteer, not-for-profit organization involved in development of international healthcare standards.  They are the very smart people that created and maintain the HL7 standard so that people like you can learn about. I won’t go in to detail right now about how to become a participating member or how to become HL7 certified – but just know that you can visit their website and find out all about their educational summit and working group dates.

HL7 Tools

So, now that you understand what the HL7 Standard is and who the Health Level 7 organization is, it’s time to learn about how to can actually start sending and receiving HL7 messages.  The key – in my opinion – is to find a good HL7 integration engine or HL7 broker and have these tried-and-true pieces of software handle everything for you.  It can get very tricky – and very expensive – to try to customize or build your own HL7 interface for each and every vendor you’re going to need to communicate with.  That’s why I alway recommend that people investigate the various pre-existing tools on the market and find the one that best suites your needs.  One word of caution:   HL7 tools can range from free to hundreds-of-thousands of dollars.  In my personal opinion, the best tools on the market are the ones in the mid-range.  Look for a company that specializes in JUST HL7 and you’ll probably find what you’re looking for.

HL7 Summary

Well, that’s my introduction to the world of HL7 (Health Level 7).  Now that you have a (very basic) understanding of the task in front of you – I invite you to take a look at the links throughout this site and start your learning experience.  I’m going to continously update these pages with HL7 tips, tricks and links, so remember to check back frequently!

Good luck and remember to have fun!