Word of the Day: Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)

Word of the Day Daily updates on the latest technology terms | December 4, 2018 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) is a web-based standard for sharing, integrating and retrieving clinical health data and other electronic health information. FHIR, which is pronounced "fire," was developed by Health Level Seven International (HL7), a not-for-profit organization accredited by the American National Standards Institute. The FHIR standard application programming interface (API) allows developers to create resources, which are chunks of information that can be joined together and transmitted from one place to another. A medical record, for example, can be thought of as a series of resources that have been joined together. Although FHIR was designed specifically for the web and provides resources and foundations based on XML, JSON, HTTP, Atom and OAuth structures, the specification also defines a framework for extending and adapting resources so they can be read by any system, regardless of the way they were developed. According to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, the adoption of the FHIR standard for sharing electronic medical information has now reached a critical mass, and nearly a third of all EHR vendors use the FHIR standard.   Critics of FHIR point out that although adoption of the standard is a move in the right direction, government regulations do not require health IT developers to conform to any specific version of the FHIR standard and that is a problem. Proponents of FHIR urge legislation to standardize the implementation of FHIR. The current officially released version of FHIR is Release 3. Quote of the Day "It's true that using FHIR doesn't mean interoperability. It doesn't mean there is a flaw in the standard itself. But if you are going to get to true interoperability, you have to add further clarification and constraint on exactly how to use FHIR in a particular situation." - Stan Huff Trending Terms HL7 ANSI electronic health record health information exchange interoperability Clinical Document Architecture Learning Center Why the FHIR standard may not get us to interoperability The FHIR standard was supposed to be the glue that brought EHRs together and interoperability to healthcare data. But with little industry buy-in, challenges with semantic agreement and the absence of a business case, the future looks bleak for the API's intended use. Tech giants support FHIR standard. Will that make a difference? Six major technology companies have signed a joint statement in support of healthcare interoperability efforts, including the FHIR standard. It's early days, but opinions are split on how much this will help. Questions about the FHIR standard? We have expert answers Debate over healthcare interoperability rages on, and experts are working to promote the FHIR standard API to help solve the problems. During the 2018 AMIA Conference, a group of clinicians attended a FHIR 'bootcamp' that even included some programming. Here are the key takeaways from the meeting. Why healthcare APIs will save lives, money and time APIs, an open source approach and a passion for interoperability are the keys to healthcare's digital future. Intermountain's Stan Huff talks about what is at stake and how to begin using healthcare APIs. A new breed of interoperable EHR apps is coming, but slowly The idea of interoperable EHR apps that can run on any electronic medical records system has been a sort of Holy Grail for the healthcare industry, and now it's starting to happen. More work has to be done, particularly around standards, but early efforts appear promising. Quiz Yourself The concept of electronic health records ______ interoperability. a. implies b. imply Answer Stay in Touch For feedback about any of our definitions or to suggest a new definition, please contact me at: mrouse@techtarget.com Visit the Word of the Day Archives and catch up on what you've missed! FOLLOW US About This E-Newsletter This e-newsletter is published by the TechTarget network. To unsubscribe from Whatis.com, click here. Please note, this will not affect any other subscriptions you have signed up for. TechTarget, Whatis, 275 Grove Street, Newton, MA 02466. Contact: webmaster@techtarget.com Copyright 2018 TechTarget. All rights reserved.