What Is HL7 vs FHIR?

Medical specialists use various types of data in their work. Those can be records, images, reports, messages, and more. To ensure comfortable use and the absence of compatibility issues, various technologies are utilized. Among those are HL7 and FHIR. Let’s find out what tasks they fulfill and how they differ.

What Is HL7?

This abbreviation stands for Health Level 7. It is a range of standards used to transfer and share pieces of information between healthcare specialists. The method has been popularized by the organization of the same name. In essence, it works like a bridge between various IT apps related to the healthcare industry. This allows sharing information quickly and more effectively. HL7-integrated solutions can be used to enhance the info exchange procedure and ensure high data accuracy.

What Is FHIR?

The abbreviation is used for Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources. This standard is utilized in the digital exchange of healthcare data. It has been also created by HL7, which is a healthcare standards organization. It is based on previously released data standards for this organization.

HL7 vs. FHIR

While FHIR was designed based on the standards developed by HL7 earlier, it is more advanced. Along with the standard functionality of other protocols, it also comes with additional technologies and services. They include RESTful web services created to work best on the web. Also, FHIR supports open web technologies. It is compatible with various data formats, such as XML, JSON, and RDF. Moreover, this standard features various options, such as messaging, documents, and others.

Starting from mid-2021, the use of FHIR will not be optional anymore for a range of parties regulated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In 2020, it released a mandate for the utilization of this standard. Those participants of the healthcare industry who are not using it yet should switch to it as soon as possible.