What is Health Level 7 ("HL7")?

Just as people from different countries with completely different native tongues are only able to communicate with each other if they can speak a common language, computer applications can only share information if they communicate with a common protocol. For people or computers to be able to share clinical data with one another, they must both:

1. have functions to be able to physically communicate, e.g. speak & hear, send and receive documents and data files, share data and information. This is called "functional interoperability".

2. speak a common language (in terms of nouns, verbs, grammatical structure, etc.) and share the same vocabulary that allows them to understand complex medical conditions and processes. This is called "semantic interoperability".

A group of healthcare computer systems users started developing the HL7 protocol in 1987 to create a common "language" that allows healthcare applications to share clinical data with each another. Over time the HL7 interoperability protocol became a nationally, internationally and globally accepted and accredited standard.

The term "Health Level 7" ("HL7") is used both for the organisations involved in developing and supporting the healthcare standards as well as for the Version 2.x and Version 3 Standards themselves and other standards developed by the HL7 local organisations in ~30 countries. HL7 creates international standards for inter-system and inter-organisation messaging, for decision support, clinical text document mark-up, user interface integration as well as a health data model and a message development methodology.

We provide a broad range of Digital Health, eHealth, Health Informatics and HL7 Workshops, Intensive 2-day HL7 Implementation Courses as well as HL7 Analyst Certification training.

HL7 Systems and Services also compiles and hosts the web's leading HL7 Tools Directory which lists every known HL7 tool and resource.

The Jan. 2011 HL7 International Meeting was held in Sydney!

The International HL7 Expert Consultants regularly contribute to the development of the HL7 V2.x, FHIR, CDA and V3 Standards.  The Australian eHealth Not-for-Profit Domains Registry consolidates and manages eHealth Internet Domains for Healthcare Consultancies and Health Informatics Not-for-Profit Online Presences.