What is HL7 FHIR?
HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) is a standard used to access and exchange healthcare data. FHIR has the potential to improve patient care by providing clinicians and patients timely access to information in a patient’s electronic health records.
What makes FHIR especially interesting is that it offers has far-reaching implications for everyone in the healthcare ecosystem, including:
- Health systems
- Specialty clinics
- Payers
- Health plans
- Government
- Clinical research facilities
- Public health entities
- Health IT vendors
- Clinicians
- Patients themselves
Because of its many advantages, healthcare organizations around the world are beginning to use FHIR in a variety of contexts, including mobile phone apps, cloud communications, EHR-based data sharing, server communication
In fact in March 2020, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) — two divisions under the Department of Health and Human Services — released tandem rules to facilitate patient access to information through FHIR application programming interfaces (APIs).
“One thing that’s unique about these rules is that they actually specify a technology,” says Drew Ivan, Chief of Product and Strategy at Rhapsody. “It’s rare for a rule from HHS to say, ‘you must use this specific technology,’ but they’ve specified FHIR version 4.”
Healthcare organizations, even those that have achieved interoperability within their organization, will have to learn to implement new interfaces based on FHIR. To help organizations equip themselves with the knowledge they’ll need to create data interfaces using FHIR, Rhapsody has created these FHIR resources.
HL7 FHIR Resources
Dave Shaver, Co-Chair of the HL7 FHIR Governance Board, provides an in-depth look at how FHIR will impact the future of health data exchange, including:
- What differentiates FHIR from other Health Standards?
- Where might FHIR be used?
- Where does FHIR go from here?
Download our HL7 FHIR primer as you plan a modern, integrated healthcare IT environment. Take advantage of new technology that can improve patient care.
