Health Level Seven International Standards

Health Level Seven International (HL7) is a set of international standards for the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information. There are several versions of HL7 standards, each serving a specific purpose and evolving over time to meet the changing needs of the healthcare industry. Below are some of the different versions of HL7 standards and how they differ:

Version	Description
HL7 v2.x	The most widely used version of HL7 standards, primarily focused on messaging and data exchange between healthcare systems. It uses a pipe "|" delimiter to separate fields and segments in messages.
HL7 v3	A more comprehensive and structured version of HL7 standards, based on the Reference Information Model (RIM) and Clinical Document Architecture (CDA). It aims to improve interoperability and data consistency.
HL7 FHIR	Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) is the latest version of HL7 standards, designed for easier implementation and adoption. It uses modern web technologies like RESTful APIs and JSON for data exchange.

Each version of HL7 standards has its own strengths and weaknesses, and healthcare organizations may choose to implement one or more versions based on their specific requirements and interoperability needs. Courses on HL7 standards cover these different versions in detail, providing students with the knowledge and skills to work effectively with electronic health information systems.