Bernie Monegain, Editor
Bernie Monegain is the Editor of Healthcare IT News. Bernie covers hospitals and IDNs, industry trends and is responsible for overall coverage decisions.
HL7 calls for changes to ONC's plan for health IT certification
Robert H. Dolin, MD, chairman of HL7 International
ANN ARBOR, MI | April 15, 2010
Standards organization Health Level Seven International is urging the United Sates to move full speed ahead with its programs for the voluntary certification of health information technology – with what the group calls "reasonable and important modifications."
Health Level Seven International (HL7) is a not-for-profit, ANSI-accredited standards developing organization (SDO), with more than 2,300 members representing about 500 organizations which comprise more than 90 percent of the healthcare information systems vendors in the United States.
In a formal comment to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology regarding the government's proposed rule for certification programs, Robert H. Dolin, MD, chairman of HL7 International, and Charles Jaffe, MD, its CEO, wrote that "the Proposed Rule on establishment of certification programs for health information technology (HIT) marks an important step forward in the nation's efforts to improve health care by putting highly functional electronic health record systems (EHR-S) at the fingertips of medical professionals and consumers alike."
In comments to ONC, they note that HL7 has a history of working with the federal government. In 2003, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Department of Health and Human Services approached HL7 to develop functional requirements for EHR systems, so that such requirements could be used to certify EHR systems and support EHR adoption incentives. As a result of this relationship, HL7 produced the EHR-S Functional Model (EHR-S FM) as well as derived functional profiles such as Emergency Health, Child Health, Behavioral Health and Long Term and Post Acute Care that specify a number of conformance criteria.
The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) has already used the EHR-S FM and its profiles to develop certification criteria. Therefore, the value of these standards for certification purposes has already been established.
HL7 made these recommendations:
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chdr say: HL7 is a vague and wild standard that really does nothing!
April 15, 2010 | 13:18 PM GMT
HL7 has caused more confusion than help over the past 10 years or so. More people talk about it, don't understand what it is and how to use it, if there is any value in it. Too many versions of HL7 exist and it's really a free for all scene out there. HL7 is just a misleading notion, an illusion, that keeps IT contractors and talkers going. There exists no Interoperability in the US today nor will it be there even after 10 years. Nobody knows what benefits this notional concept of interoperability will ever bring. Faster lab test orders? Even faster lab test results? Even faster/ better patient treatments? And even faster/ better patient outcomes? Nobody has any incentive to do all this. Reduce duplicative lab tests? Don't even say that! HL7 or ZL7, or PHIN-MS whatever be the case, it is HL7 that causes the problems. HL7 must be simplified and explained so end users get better out of it.
d7b say: unfortunately, i have to agree
Im sure that the developers had good intentions when creating HL7 but the hybrid bastardised form we have all grown to loath over the years is missing the point entirely.
This alleged 'standard' is not a standard at all, with many vendors and facilities picking and choosing their own message formatting which eliminates the point of a standard in the first place.
Interface engineers and software engineers still have to bridge the gap irrespective of the HL7 messages being transmitted most of the time. In my experience, it would be easier to bridge system messages without it, not to mention quicker and more efficient.
I have also yet to see HL7 V3 in Australia utilising XML. A nice idea, but with custom 'standard' messages no doubt being deloped it will again miss the point.
Good work capturing 90% of the Healthcare market, but please, revise or give up!