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How does HL7 work?

Whenever I travel for work, one of the most common questions I hear is “How does HL7 work?”

HL7 is not always one of the sexiest subjects, but as interoperability and connectivity continue to be huge drivers in the health care space, the questions of HL7 are going to continue to be asked.

So, after a little thought, I thought I’d create a fun – and hopefully useful – video describing what HL7 is and what it does.

5 Ways To Speed Up HL7 Integration

Think about it.  These days everyone – and their mother – are talking about EMRs and EHRs.  Well, as great at these systems may be, when it comes down to it, they’d be useless without a standard for communicating with existing health care applications and facilities.  That’s where HL7 comes it.  HL7 is not just a component of these advances in health care interoperability, but arguably one of the most important factors.  To use a web analogy, EMRs, HIS’, RIS’ and all the other systems are the equivalent to websites.  They are incredibly powerful and many people are working hard to create the most useful tools; but, just like the internet, these tools would be useless if no one was able to connect to and actually view these sites.

HL7 is what happens behinds the scenes allowing health care systems to connect and share information.

So, now that you’ve seen my latest video – How does HL7 work – and let me know what you think.  Did it make you laugh?  Do you have a better idea of what HL7 does?  Are there other topics you’d like to see discussed in a similar manner?  We’d love you hear your thoughts.


blog-cta-5-ways

Dec 19, 2009Art
New and Improved Members WebsiteWhat does an HL7 message look like?
Comments: 23
  1. Jan
    December 21, 2009 at 4:40 pm

    Hi Art,
    Well done! Well done! I applaud you for simplifying HL7 to laymans terms for others to understand.

    Have a great week.

    Kindest Regards,
    Jan Vance

    ReplyCancel
  2. Kelly Poore
    December 22, 2009 at 1:51 pm

    Art,

    Nicely done. You’ve conveyed concepts well. I am sharing it around as you’ve done a better job explaining it than I can. Any chance you will be doing a more technical descrption of HL7 packet exchanges and security?

    Happy Holidays!

    Regards,
    Kelly

    ReplyCancel
  3. Neelesh
    December 23, 2009 at 6:55 am

    ” HL7 standards specify a number of flexible standards, guidelines, and methodologies by which various healthcare systems can communicate with each other.” …

    ReplyCancel
  4. Michael Jahn
    December 28, 2009 at 12:21 pm

    up to 1:02 in the video, HL7 was completely ignored in nearly every Dr.s office in the USA. It is a answer to a question that no one is asking. What we need is a way for the PATIENT to fill out a form (HL7 does NOTHING to help that – it is a overly complicated specification that tries to boil the ocean.

    We already have many many web based and PDF based forms – what we do not have is a simple easy to install and support way to use them.

    Google Health’s approach of using someting far simpler -like CCR – will win in that space – as for the X-Ray,we already have DICOM. No need encumbering your use case with HL7 from my view.

    ReplyCancel
  5. Glen Vaughn
    December 28, 2009 at 7:10 pm

    This is great. You’ve covered a lot of information concisely in a way that those of us who just want a better understanding of the vocabulary can readily grasp, as well as comprehend the significance of HL-7. Thanks for sharing it.

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  6. Richa
    December 29, 2009 at 2:46 am

    Art,
    A very good way of introducing the concept of HL7. Will make it easier for me to talk about HL7 in a simple fashion. Thanks for the effort.

    Regards,
    Richa

    ReplyCancel
  7. Andreas Theodosiou
    January 3, 2010 at 5:43 pm

    I hear Michael’s frustration – however, the problem with the Dr.’s offices may have more to do with a lack of adequate infrastructure, technical resources or even EMR’s to support sharing of data – regardless of the standard used. This is changing as costs come down, ease-of-use goes up and standards evolve.

    However flawed, HL7 2.x solves a lot of real world problems and has made a significant impact on increasing efficiency, reducing costs and improving patient health. It also has too big an install and user base, covering too many different areas of medicine, to be quickly replaced. Art’s video simply acknowledges its broad acceptance and helps demystify HL7 for someone starting out.

    Newer standards such HL7’s CDA and ASTM’s CCR will gain traction, but we are likely to see a dual track (with HL7 2.x) for quite some time. Interesting to note that last weeks Interim Final Rule on “Meaningful Use” from DHHS appears to accept both CCD and CCR (in addition to 2.x).

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  8. Vadym
    January 4, 2010 at 8:43 am

    Good stuff! Some people think that the HL7 is a kind of file format, or even a mix between file format and protocol. But this video makes it easy to understand what HL7 is in essence. It would be great to have something like this but with a bit more technical stuff – segments, components, sub-components, and so on. Thanks!

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  9. Ben
    January 9, 2010 at 6:08 am

    but see http://hl7-watch.blogspot.com/2009/12/hl7-is-brooken_30.html

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    • Art
      January 18, 2010 at 9:41 am

      Hi Ben,

      That article is specifically talking about version 3 of the HL7 messaging standard. Unlike version 3, which is still working out issues like the ones referred to in the article you linked to, version 2 is used extensively throughout the industry and has proven to be a incredibly useful and usable standard.

      -Art

      ReplyCancel
  10. Santi Mulukutla
    January 14, 2010 at 5:23 pm

    Thank Art.

    This is really great. It is easy to follow and understand; and it helps people understand the key pieces and learn the terminology. It reminded me of the Schoolhouse Rock days – conjunction junction what’s your function – kind of thing. I think if you had some background music to help it move along…it would help make it ‘stick’ since I believe you want the people to learn the terminology and speak in standard language/terms going forward. Very, very nice.

    Thank you.

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  11. Art
    January 19, 2010 at 12:48 pm

    I just added a new video – What does an HL7 message look like? – to go a little deeper into the technical details of HL7. Have a look and let me know what you think.

    -Art

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  12. Henry
    February 13, 2010 at 2:37 pm

    Great thanks! very much informative and cool 🙂

    ReplyCancel
  13. ravikumar
    February 17, 2010 at 10:22 am

    Hi,
    I am ravi i am very much intersted to learn this HL7…… i am from india can any one guide me please

    ReplyCancel
  14. Raghvendra giri
    March 28, 2010 at 5:51 am

    A very good way of introducing the concept of HL7. Will make it easier for me to talk about HL7 in a simple fashion. Thanks for the effort.

    good going

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  15. Scott
    April 15, 2010 at 9:20 pm

    Awesome summary here. I work in health care IT and it is amazing how many people cannot it explain this topic.

    ReplyCancel
  16. friedensreich hundertwasser
    January 9, 2012 at 8:51 am

    nice post!
    i cant share this link : https://blog.interfaceware.com/hl7/how-does-hl7-work
    am i doing it wrong ?

    ReplyCancel
    • Art
      February 14, 2012 at 11:01 pm

      You don’t need the “s” — just http

      http://blog.interfaceware.com/hl7/how-does-hl7-work

      ReplyCancel
  17. adeline
    February 14, 2012 at 10:56 pm

    I am interested in HL7– how it works. I couldn’t view the video. Please email this video to me. Thanks so much

    ReplyCancel
    • Art
      February 14, 2012 at 11:05 pm

      You should be able to watch the video on YouTube – http://youtu.be/qewOJPxz4-c

      Actually, you can find all of our videos there on our channel: http://www.youtube.com/interfaceware/

      Hopefully YouTube works for you, but if not, let me know and I’ll send you a copy of the mp4.

      ReplyCancel
  18. Kevin Majchszak
    July 2, 2014 at 4:55 pm

    Nice job, Art! The picturesque depiction of the process for utilizing EMRs (website), patient data and files as the endpoint are the train cars; BUT the HL7 phenomenon as engine and cars combined drives the nail in for this concept to ROCK! Thanks also for the user-friendly additional resourse site. Keep up the great work. (I am a nursing professional learning informatics concepts here and appreciate the analogy…)

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  19. Margaret Murphy
    February 24, 2016 at 3:11 pm

    Hi, Absolutely love your HL7 videos! I’m working on a health IT education project with Stanford University Open Learning Initiative group. The course (which we’re currently updating) is freely available to the public. We’d love to include two of your HL7 videos in the course. Would you consider giving us permission to do so? (If you’d like to check out the course it’s at http://oli.stanford.edu/health-technology/)

    ReplyCancel
    • iNTERFACEWARE
      February 24, 2016 at 3:14 pm

      Absolutely! You are 100% welcome and able to re-use our videos in the courses. We love helping out, with our videos and or software, so it’s our pleasure!

      ReplyCancel

Leave a Reply to adeline Cancel reply

Art
December 19, 2009 23 Comments HL7, Videosfunny, health level 7, hl-7, HL7, integration, integration engine, interface, movie, video6,434
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