The HL7 standard

"HL7" is an abbreviation and stands for "Health Level Seven". Improving the efficiency and quality of medical care goes hand in hand with the development of information structures within and between healthcare facilities. The international data standard HL7, developed specifically for the healthcare sector, enables communication and cooperation between almost all institutions and areas of the healthcare system.

HL7 originated in the USA, where its first version was developed after an initial meeting at the University Hospital in Palo Alto in 1987. In the meantime, a commercial organization has been formed(www.hl7.org), which today distributes HL7 version 2.3 (published in 1996) and is also the "umbrella organization" of all HL7 users and coordinates their activities.

Features of HL7

  • International standard
  • Global organization with national representatives
  • HL7 fulfills a wide range of requirements, from logistics to image communication, from archiving to assignment
  • HL7 cooperates primarily with IHE, an initiative of healthcare professionals and industry, with the aim of improving data exchange between computer systems in the healthcare sector.
  • HL7 standards are widely used in the IHE profiles.
  • HL7 also cooperates closely with other standards, including ISO, GIS and CDISC
  • HL7 uses international terminologies such as LOINC and SNOMED CT
  • CDISC: Harmonization with HL7 for clinical research.

But what is HL7?

First of all: HL7 is not a computer program or computer software. Nevertheless, HL7 is all about electronic data processing and the electronic exchange of information. HL7 is basically a precise, very detailed set of instructions.

Here is an example:

Patient A is in hospital. A blood test has been carried out. The test results were collected in the hospital laboratory and are now to be communicated to the ward doctor.

The laboratory has its own computer system with which the test results are managed. The computer system on the ward should now display the results of patient A's blood test. To do this, the results must be transferred from the laboratory computer to the ward doctor's computer.

HL7 is now a regulation that the laboratory can follow as to how exactly the test results are to be transferred to the ward doctor's computer. For example, it must be specified that, for example, the surname should be transmitted first, then the first name, first the month of birth, then the date of birth, etc. should be transmitted.

If the message (here: the findings) is coded according to the rules of HL7, the recipient can understand the message because it is precisely defined what is what and what has to be in which position