What is HL7 FHIR?
HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) is a healthcare standard developed by Health Level Seven International (HL7) to simplify the exchange of health information between systems. FHIR makes it easier for healthcare organizations, providers, and patients to access and share clinical data in real time.
FHIR has the potential to improve patient care by providing clinicians and patients timely access to information in a patient’s electronic health records.
Who Uses HL7 FHIR?
FHIR 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
What Are FHIR Resources?
FHIR resources are the building blocks of the HL7 FHIR standard. Each resource represents a specific type of healthcare data — such as a patient, observation, allergy, or medication — and contains just the right amount of detail to be meaningful without being overwhelming.
A FHIR resource is typically structured into four parts:
- Metadata – details about the resource, like when it was last updated
- Narrative – human-readable XHTML so it can be viewed in a browser
- Extensions – custom fields not included in the base specification
- Elements – the structured data itself (e.g., demographics, codes, dates)
In practice, FHIR resources provide the foundation for exchanging health data across systems. For example, a Patient resource might capture demographics, while an Observation resource records a lab result.
Explore our detailed overview of HL7 FHIR resources to see how they support interoperability and improve healthcare workflows.
The Advantages of FHIR
Healthcare organizations worldwide are adopting HL7 FHIR resources to enable mobile apps, cloud-based data exchange, EHR integration, and secure server communications. Some of the most important benefits include:
Easier Data Exchange
FHIR uses modern web standards (like RESTful APIs and JSON/XML), making it simpler and faster for systems to exchange data compared to older standards.
Patient-Centered Access
FHIR empowers patients to directly access their health records via apps, improving engagement, transparency, and care coordination.
Flexibility for Innovation
FHIR resources are modular and extensible, allowing developers to build new healthcare applications, integrate AI/ML models, and scale solutions more easily.
Federal Rules on FHIR and Patient Access
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.”
This marked a major milestone in interoperability, as it required healthcare organizations to adopt FHIR as the standard for secure data sharing.
Implementing FHIR
Healthcare organizations, even those that have achieved interoperability within their organization, will have to learn to implement new interfaces based on FHIR.
If you’re new to the data structures themselves, start by reviewing FHIR resources— the core building blocks you’ll use when modeling healthcare data.
FHIR adoption doesn’t mean starting from scratch. Rhapsody supports FHIR-to-HL7 v2 transformations (and vice versa), enabling organizations to connect legacy systems while adopting new standards.
HL7 FHIR Resources
Dave Shaver, Co-Chair of the HL7 FHIR Governance Board, provides insights into the future of health data exchange, including:
- What differentiates FHIR from other healthcare data standards
- Where FHIR can be applied today and in the future
- How FHIR will continue to evolve
Read this HL7 FHIR primer as you plan a modern, integrated healthcare IT environment. Take advantage of new technology that can improve patient care.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What does FHIR stand for in HL7?
FHIR stands for Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, a standard developed by HL7 for healthcare data exchange.
What are FHIR resources?
FHIR resources are standardized data formats and elements that represent specific types of healthcare information (e.g., Patient, Observation, Medication, Encounter). They form the building blocks of the FHIR standard.
How is HL7 FHIR different from HL7 v2 and v3?
FHIR is more modern and web-friendly, supporting RESTful APIs and easy implementation compared to older HL7 versions.
Why is FHIR important in healthcare?
FHIR improves interoperability, patient access, and innovation by making healthcare data more usable across systems and applications.
