FHIR: the standard for secure exchange of medical data
FHIR is an international standard - developed by HL7 - for the exchange of medical data between several healthcare systems and patients. The standard forms the basis for secure, efficient and qualitative data exchange so that interoperability and cooperation between medical stakeholders improves. In this blog we’ll tell you more about the operation and benefits of FHIR for your organization.
What does FHIR & HL7 mean?
HL7 developed the FHIR standard.
What is HL7?
HL7 stands for Health Level Seven. It is the responsible organization that creates and promotes standards in healthcare. The purpose of the standard is to exchange, share and integrate health sector data in a secure and standardized way.
What is FHIR?
FHIR stands for Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources. The standard allows various healthcare systems to exchange medical data easily and securely. Because info is accessible in a technically simple way, more medical stakeholders can use the data.
The importance of FHIR
It is important for healthcare organizations to comply with the FHIR standard because it provides several important benefits. In addition, the standard also helps address some industry challenges.
The benefits of the FHIR standard
The FHIR standard improves collaboration within the healthcare industry. First, thanks to the interoperability it facilitates. The standard allows various healthcare systems – regardless of the vendor or platform they use – to exchange medical data seamlessly. This way, you optimize communication and collaboration between healthcare providers. It also ensures that healthcare providers can share patient data among themselves more easily. This benefits the patient, as healthcare providers have a more complete image of the patient's overall health status.
Technologically, it is also interesting to work with the standard. First, because of the flexibility of the standard. Because FHIR works with reusable components and a modular approach, it is easy to adapt the standard to specific use cases or workflows in the healthcare sector. Furthermore, the standard uses modern Web standards, think of: HTTP, JSON and XML. This makes it easy to integrate with existing software architectures and Web tools.
Finally, it is also legally interesting. Strict regulations apply to the healthcare sector. FHIR ensures that healthcare organizations comply with specific regulations such as HIPAA in the U.S. and GDPR in the EU.
What industry challenges has FHIR solved?
The FHIR standard itself has come a long way. It is the latest standard from HL7 where the teething problems of previous standards have been eliminated. Thanks to the modern Web standard, it is now easier to implement and better suited for mobile and Web applications.
Earlier versions of the standard were not yet capable of imparting much detail of data. That lack of granularity has since been solved. Due to the fine-grained structure of the data with modular resources, it is now possible to share much more detailed data.
The FHIR standard also benefits the patient. Where it used to be difficult to access your patient records, this has now been solved. Thanks to the FHIR, healthcare providers can easily access and share data with their patients.
Let Kunlabora help implement the FHIR standard
Does your healthcare facility already comply with the FHIR standard? Our experts are ready to help you implement the standard. At Kunlabora, we already enjoy a lot of expertise in FHIR. Since 2018, we have been helping organizations to become compliant. We also attend trainings and conferences annually so we’re always up to date with the latest developments. In addition, we have experience in both the public and private sectors, plus in interoperability between the two.
Look no further if you need a full-stack solution to enjoy the benefits of the FHIR standard: our experts are ready to help you. We work according to a 360° approach considering all stakeholders. Sounds appealing?
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