Health Level Seven International (HL7), the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global authority for interoperability and standards in healthcare information technology, has confirmed earlier plans by making much of its intellectual property (IP) freely available under licensing terms.
The landmark decision represents HL7’s commitment to the betterment of healthcare worldwide by ensuring that all stakeholders have equal access to its HIT standards The new policy includes all currently published standards, implementation guides and other select IP as determined on a case-by-case basis.
“By making our standards freely available, we hope to accelerate the evolution of healthcare information exchange at the very basic levels, and ultimately to impact wellness and healthcare delivery on a global scale. This decision has met with overwhelming support from members and other stakeholders,” Charles Jaffe, M.D., Ph.D., HL7 CEO, said in a statement.
In conjunction with freely licensing its IP, HL7 also plans to revise its membership model later this year. In addition to the existing benefits of membership, new benefits and services, many of which are designed to assist with implementation, are currently under development and may include: extensive expansion of deeply discounted or free education programs and training, exclusive access to HL7 experts, certification of HL7 conformance; a professionally supported Help Desk; and enhanced testing of individual expertise in HL7 development, training, and implementation.
