FHIR: What's it All About?
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The document introduces FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperable Resources), a new standard proposed by HL7 to address limitations of current standards like HL7 v2 and v3 and to leverage web technologies. It describes how FHIR is designed using RESTful principles and common web approaches to simplify implementation and reduce costs. The document also discusses how FHIR adoption is growing within the HL7 community and healthcare sectors and could help commoditize integration and interface costs.
FHIR: What's it All About?
- 1. FHIR: What’s it all about? Grahame Grieve HINZ November 2013 © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.
- 2. Overview Introducing FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperable Resources) Why HL7 needs a fresh approach Leveraging web technologies in core healthcare business How FHIR will drive down the costs of integration Market consequence of changes in standards © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.
- 3. HL7 “The 800lb Gorilla of Healthcare Standards” Underlying standards for most interactions between healthcare systems Messaging: HL7 v2 Clinical Documents: CDA Basis for many New Zealand Standards © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.
- 4. HL7 v2 Common Messaging standard • Simple syntax • East to Understand • Widely adopted • Much experience • Backwards comp. preserves investment • Old technology • Poor format • Very Limited Scope • Backwards comp. limits new ideas • Local agreement • If you’ve seen one v2 interface… © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.
- 5. HL7 v3 Quality Methodology to supercede v2 • Rigorous & Thorough Definitions • Computable Base • Massive Requirements Exercise • Based on XML & UML • Deep Knowledge Required • Complex Syntax • Common Semantics != Common Engineering • If you’ve seen one v3 interface…. • Very expensive © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.
- 6. CDA Clinical document (Narrative + v3 data) • Easier than v3 • Reusable Engineering • Flexible and Adaptable • Widely adopted • Suits poor governance context • Documents are not data • Narrative vs Data • Hacking v2 & CDA together • Development still too complex • CDA is too simple for desires © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.
- 7. OMG Collaboration Common services for healthcare • Definitions – HL7 • Hybrid – Odd knowledge engineering • Engineering – OMG • Uptake Variable expertise • Mostly relevant to • Architectural big enterprise relevance to big enterprise © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.
- 8. HL7 Position Existing standards work tolerably well Approach is fractured None of the available approaches future proof Mobile Application Client/Server Web / Social Network / Cloud Integration Vendor standards based API Governments implementing national EHRs HL7’s community – very unhappy © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.
- 9. Fresh Look Taskforce Charter: to examine the best ways it could create interoperability solutions, with no preconditions on what those solutions might be Outcomes: CIMI – Clinical Information Modeling Initiative FHIR © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.
- 10. Web Centric A Fresh Look must start with the web Successful integration not dreamed of even a decade ago Leverage both technology and approaches Get on board with “SMAC” © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.
- 11. RESTful Searching for success markers lead to RESTful APIs In particular, 37Signals “Highrise” Application Highly regarded “RESTful” API Rewrote the Highrise API for healthcare With as little change as possible Very positively received © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.
- 12. FHIR – http://hl7.org/fhir Fast Health Interoperable Resources® (pr. “fire”) Small building blocks for health records XML / JSON representation Tailored for REST but useable in other ways Standard Data, Narrative, and Extensions Best ideas from HL7, DICOM, IHE etc Based on industry best practices, with a focus on simplicity and implementability Administration / Clinical / Infrastructure © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.
- 13. © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.
- 14. FHIR Development Progress July 2011 – Conception Aug/Sept 2012 – First Draft Ballot Sept 2012 – First Connectathon Aug/Sept 2013 (now) – First DSTU ballot DSTU = Draft Standard For Trial Use January 2014 – DSTU finalised ~2016 – Final full version © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.
- 15. FHIR & Cost of Integration FHIR is designed for implementers Written to be understood and implemented Resources are described in the language of the problem Quality and Consistency is in the background Version Stability inherent 100s of examples Implementation assistance (code etc) Live Servers, Regular Connectathons © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.
- 16. FHIR & Cost of Integration FHIR re-uses technology Copy Facebook, Google, Twitter etc Work with W3C Skills & Libraries are easily available RESTful API is re-usable Push / Pull / Subscribe / Search Build on top of it © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.
- 17. FHIR & Cost of Integration FHIR is free and accessible No limitations on use or distribution Published as a website (direct linking) Tutorials, Documentation published under open licenses © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.
- 18. FHIR & Cost of Integration These factors will drive down the cost of integration and interoperability Easier to Develop Easier to Troubleshoot Easier to Leverage in production More people to do the work (less expensive consultants) Competing approaches will have to match the cost, or disappear – effect is already being felt © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.
- 19. FHIR & Market Consequences FHIR is a brand new approach Is it really worth doing something brand new? Initial response from HL7 community members is always negative Drive to adopt FHIR comes from outside Reason why FHIR is free Classic change process problem © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.
- 20. FHIR Community of Interest July 2011 – A few insiders Sept 2012 – The wider HL7 community Early 2013 – National programs start exploring use of FHIR Sept 2013 – The integration community (interface engine vendors) + (new) EHR vendors 2014/2015: Slow penetration across the market – especially large projects © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.
- 21. FHIR & PHR PHR market growing rapidly Many PHR providers, 1000s of healthcare providers Total cost for PHR connection - ~$100000 The PHR interface has to be commoditised FHIR is the only candidate Strong & Quick Adoption in this space © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.
- 22. FHIR Specification: http://hl7.org/fhir Twitter: #FHIR (news feed) My blog: http://www.healthintersections.com.au David Hay’s blog: http://fhirblog.com © Health Intersections. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License © 2013 HL7 ® International. Licensed under Creative Commons. HL7 & Health Level Seven are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. Reg. U.S. TM Office.