LAS VEGAS, USA – Feb. 22, 2012 – Health Level Seven International (HL7) announced today a pilot program to provide some of its key intellectual property free of charge. “HL7 is keeping its promise to lower the barriers to adoption of electronic health records by making portions of our valuable intellectual property freely available to our stakeholders,” said Charles Jaffe, MD, PhD, CEO of HL7. “We believe that care givers, academic centers and vendors will greatly benefit from this significant enhancement for access to valuable HL7 material.”
In the pilot project, HL7 will enable no-cost licensing of its domain models (DAMs) and functional profiles. This offer, a first for HL7, was announced at the 2012 HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition, one of the largest health information technology conferences in the United States.
The DAM is a set of requirements that explore and analyze the business of a particular clinical “domain.”Domain analysis is the first step in creating HL7 standards for a specific care or research environment. The domain analysis process produces documentation describing the stakeholders, activities, interactions, and information for a particular domain and serves as the source of requirements used in the design of HL7 standards.
Stand-alone DAMs will be made available at no cost during the one-year pilot, including:
• HL7 Version 3 DAM: Cardiology; Acute Coronary Syndrome
• HL7 Version 3 DAM: Clinical Trials Registration and Results
• HL7 Version 3 DAM: Analysis Model: Vital Records
Functional profiles for the HL7 Electronic Health Record System Functional Model (EHR-S FM) also will be available as part of the pilot program. The HL7 EHR-S FM was the industry’s first standard approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to specify the functional requirements for an electronic health record system. HL7’s functional profiles outline the important features and functions of an EHR system, including criteria to support functions such as medication history, clinical decision support, and privacy and security. Profiles that are available to support specific uses across the continuum of care include:
• Child health
• Behavioral health
• Long-term care
• Clinical research
• Records management and evidentiary support
“HL7 standards are the most widely used in the industry,” said Don Mon, PhD, chair, HL7 board of directors. “These standards will be especially useful to physicians, nurses and other health care professionals, as well as health information management/technology (HIM/HIT) professionals. Making these standards available at no cost will further our mission to enhance the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information around the world.”
The HL7 DAMs and functional profiles can be accessed at the HL7 online store or through the HL7.org home page. Users must complete a click-through license registration process to participate.
About Health Level Seven (HL7) International
Founded in 1987, Health Level Seven International is the global authority for healthcare Information interoperability and standards with affiliates established in more than 30 countries. HL7 is a non-profit, ANSI accredited standards development organization dedicated to providing a comprehensive framework and related standards for the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information that supports clinical practice and the management, delivery and evaluation of health services. HL7’s more than 2,300 members represent approximately 500 corporate members, which include more than 90 percent of the information systems vendors serving healthcare. HL7 collaborates with other standards developers and provider, payer, philanthropic and government agencies at the highest levels to ensure the development of comprehensive and reliable standards and successful interoperability efforts.