Health Level Seven (HL7)

Whitepaper

A list of interesting whitepapers on HL7 topics will be published soon.

HL7 Experts Consortium

In January 2003 a group of HL7 experts has been founded which should provide help on issues especially related to HL7. This group is the biggest association of independent consultants worldwide.
Please find more information at www.hl7experts.com.

HL7 Events

A good list of events happening around integration issues in general and HL7 in specific can be found on the Ringholm website.

Volunteer of the Year Award 2002

Every year the HL7 community honors individuals who have spent a lot of time and energy on HL7 issues. A special award (HL7 Volunteer of the Year Award 2002) has been created thereof which is handed to those individuals during the plenary session in the fall meeting.

Archive

Some information which may be of interest for developers of previous HL7 versions may take a look into the archive. It contains articles of minor interest:

HL7 Version 2.2
HL7 Version 2.3 (Ballot #1)
HL7 Version 2.3 (Ballot #2)
HL7 Version 2.3 (Ballot #3)
HL7 Version 2.3 (Final Standard)
HL7 Version 2.3 (Implementation Guide - Ballot #1)
HL7 V.2.3.1 (Ballot #1)
HL7 V.2.3.1 (Final Standard)
HL7 V.2.4 (Committe Ballot #1)
HL7 V.2.4 (Final Standard)
HL7 V.2.5 (Final Standard)
HL7 V.2.5.1 (Final Standard)
HL7 V.2.6 (Final Standard)

Content Management

The second International Affiliate Meeting has been held in Reading, UK at the end of August 2001. In Reading we had the opportunity to present the latest approach on Content Management using database and web techniques for maintaining a standard.

HL7 Database

One major activity is the maintenance of the official HL7 database. The next release - version 5.0 - with some new features will be available soon. (The current release - version 4.0 - is available since the working group meeting in Cologne, May 2007.)

Some available functionality for the database (version 5.0):

generation of XML schemas

For version 3.0 of the database the following additions were provided:

active scripting with PHP running on a webserver like Apache 2.0
links to the HTML documentation when working with the Messaging Workbench >6.2 (described and to be used with the MWB)

This functionality hasn't been released with the official CD.

Inconsistency List(s)

This page should provide information about the inconsistencies within the current version. In contrast to previous inconsistency lists this one also checks the interversion compatibility. As such, even if the list seems not to be shorter than the previous ones, the current version of the standard is the best one we have:

HL7 V.2.6 (Final Standard)

Information about the previous version can be found in my archive.

Version 2.6

The next version of the HL7 v2.x standard will hopefully be released end of 2007. It has passed the last membership cycle. Unfortunately, we have identified a few issues which should be reconciled before publishing. However, it has some new information:

Claims and Reimbursement (chp.16)
Materials Management (chp.17)

Version 2.5.1

This version has been issued in order to solve some urgent American requirements. Beside some technical corrections only a few fields have been added.

Version 2.5

If you do not want to check directly the whole standard for new features you can make use of some withepapers with a comprehensive list:

News in HL7 V.2.5 (in English)

Other Information

You can find information about HL7 also at

Health Level Seven, Inc.
HL7 Benutzergruppe in Deutschland e.V. (German HL7 User Group)
HL7 Tools

These pages also guide you to the other International Affiliates.