HL7 Offers Some of Its Wares For Free

Health Level Seven made an interesting announcement at HIMSS12 this week, announcing a pilot project in which it will give away some what it terms “key intellectual property” at no charge.  HL7  is offering no-charge licensing of its domain models (DAMs) and functional profiles.  This is the first time HL7 has offered such a deal. Given some of the ongoing issues in implementing HL7, which hasn’t always contributed to interoperability the way the industry has hoped, I think the jury’s out on how effective this will be.

For what it’s worth, HL7 is beginning by giving It makes sense that HL7 would start by giving away DAM licenses, as the DAM requirements allow providers to take the first step of analyzing the business of a specific clinical domain. This is the first step in creating HL7 standards for a specific clinical area. Once the DAM analysis is completed, organizations have a source they can use to design HL7 standards.

In addition to the DAM rules, HL7 is also licensing some stand-alone DAMs which address some important clinical processes, including cardiology, acute coronary syndrome, clinical trials registration and results and its analysis model for vital records.

The other prong of HL7’s offer is free licenses for the HL7 Electronic Health Record System Functional Model (EHR-S FM), whch specifies the key requirements for an EHR.  THe profiles offer details on key features and functions of EHRs, including criteria for supproting medication history, clnical decision support, privacy and security.

HL7 is offering several specialized profiles at no cost, including child health, behavioral health, long-term care, clinical research and records management and evidentiary support.

HL7 also announced a collaboration with the National Cancer Institute at the show, under which it the two will use the HL7 Clinical Document Architecture to connect clinical trial data to patient EHRs.  The two parties say the project should bring clinical trial data straight to practicing physicians as quickly as possible, helping to close the infamous “bench to bedside” gap.  This actually sounds more promising than the above; let’s hope we see some  quick action here.

 

 

 

About the author

Anne Zieger

Anne Zieger is a healthcare journalist who has written about the industry for 30 years. Her work has appeared in all of the leading healthcare industry publications, and she's served as editor in chief of several healthcare B2B sites.

   

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