Over the past decade, healthcare has undergone a secular shift. Technology has changed how care is initiated, delivered, and managed. Digitalizing medical records created an environment that was ripe with possibilities to innovate.
Patients want to own their healthcare experience and journey. Today’s environment requires healthcare organizations and providers to use new technology applications to deliver the care and outcomes their patient’s desire.
The healthcare market today needs to be connected and tightly integrated. When selecting products and solutions, organizations and providers require the applications they use to integrate and share data.
What is HL7?
Health Level Seven (HL7) is the most common international standard for transferring and sharing healthcare data between providers and technology systems. HL7 is broad and is appropriate for many use cases. Many other healthcare data standards exist but are generally more specialized and apply to more nuanced or specific workflows. In a previous blog, we reviewed the history and different versions of HL7. HL7 standards are likely here to stay and will serve as a reliable method to set up interfaces between technology applications in healthcare.What Advantages Do HL7 Interfaces Provide?
HL7 interfaces are connections between two systems that enable sharing of healthcare data. Through an interface, systems can send and receive information and data in a standardized way and can provide several benefits, including:- Improved Efficiency: HL7 interfaces automate the process of exchanging healthcare data. Interoperability allows users to spend less time managing technology and applications and more time delivering care and working with patients.
- Better Patient Care: Providers and patients can access a complete, or more complete, medical record. Data often originates in different systems and can be sent to another application or consolidated in a centralized location such as a data warehouse.
- Reduced Manual Work: Interoperable EHRs and healthcare applications reduce the need for manual data entry. Instead of logging in to multiple applications or transposing data from one system to another, healthcare data is exchanged and presented in a single location.
- Data Analytics: When healthcare data is standardized and shared between multiple sources, running analytics to gather evidence and improve care, operations and outcomes become more effective.
