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WHO and HL7: Making Health Systems Talk
The World Health Organization (WHO) and HL7 are teaming up to create global harmony in healthcare. Their mission? To develop guidelines that promote open interoperability standards so that health systems can communicate effectively.
Collaboration Details: A Match Made in Health Heaven
WHO and HL7 are joining forces to create equitable digital health systems worldwide. By combining their expertise in public health and data exchange standards, they’re on a mission to exchange vital patient information seamlessly across different platforms.
Their focus? Developing multilingual support for SMART patient data exchange standards enabled by HL7 FHIR, all for free. This move will boost cross-border medical applications and reusable technologies in healthcare.
Why Open Interoperability Standards Matter
Accurate health information is critical for life-saving decisions in our interconnected world. Open interoperability standards ensure smooth communication between digital health systems, ensuring everyone’s on the same page.
Interoperability allows clinicians worldwide to access patients’ medical records instantly, no matter where they were created or stored. It also helps researchers collaborate efficiently while keeping data security in check.
These open standards help care providers coordinate better and empower patients by giving them control over their medical records.
Role of WHO’s Global Digital Health Strategy
The WHO is directing the course of global health with its Global Digital Health Strategy, providing a roadmap for member states to traverse the digital health terrain. It’s like a GPS for member states, guiding them in navigating the digital health landscape.
Overview of WHO’s global digital health strategy
This strategic plan focuses on three main objectives: promoting equal access to digital health technologies, setting trustworthy policies, and seamlessly integrating these technologies into existing healthcare systems. WHO wants to ensure everyone can enjoy digital technology’s perks for better healthcare outcomes.
One key area in line with this strategy is interoperability – the ability of different information systems or apps to communicate effectively. It’s like teaching different languages to talk to each other but for healthcare data.
How this strategy influences interoperability standards adoption
Adopting open interoperability standards is crucial to WHO’s Global Digital Health Strategy. These standards act as universal translators for healthcare systems worldwide.
To promote the acceptance and implementation of these standards, WHO has partnered with HL7 International – the authority on developing frameworks and standards for exchanging electronic health records (EHRs). Together, they’re creating guidelines to advance open interoperability standard adoption worldwide.
Expected Outcome from the Collaboration
The WHO and HL7 collaboration aims to make healthcare interoperability a breeze. We’re revolutionizing global health by offering free multilingual support for SMART patient data exchange standards through HL7 FHIR.
Key Outcomes Expected from the Collaboration
- Better Access to Health Information: Free multilingual support for SMART patient data exchange standards means more people worldwide can access crucial health information.
- Promotion of Cross-Border Medical Applications: With interoperability standards, medical apps and technologies developed in one country can be used anywhere.
- Increase in Reusable Technologies Usage: Standardization makes reusable technologies more accessible, leading to cost savings and improved efficiency in healthcare systems globally.
Impact on Substitutable Medical Applications and Reusable Technologies Guidelines
This partnership promotes interoperability and establishes guidelines for substitutable medical applications (SMART) and reusable technologies. These guidelines ensure strict adherence during development and usage, minimizing misuse and misinterpretation. For more details, check here.
Normative Standard Development Led by WHO
They develop normative standards for healthcare content and ensure member states play nice within these guidelines. They’re the ones responsible for keeping global health systems in check.
Role played by both organizations in developing normative standards
HL7 handles the technical stuff, creating fancy mechanisms for FHIR-enabled standards. Meanwhile, WHO takes on the supervisor role, ensuring these standards meet all member states’ needs and align with their Global Digital Health Strategy. Ensuring equitable access to digital health services is a priority.
Process involved in creating a unified terminology system
To ensure effective communication of health information, it is essential to use a common language. WHO and HL7 work together to develop a set of terminologies and classifications that everyone can understand. They gather terms from different sources, translate them into six global languages, and put them through some serious testing. The result? A set of normative standards that make data exchange and global healthcare research a piece of cake.
With standardized terminologies, we can exchange patient data across borders. Plus, researchers worldwide can team up and tackle extensive studies with ease, leading to better healthcare outcomes for all.
TRANSFORM CARE INTO VALUE
Improve Outcomes and Care Efficiency
Opeeka’s Person-Centered Intelligence Solution (P-CIS) connects to existing electronic health records and automates processes to improve care delivery.
Technical Mechanisms Created By HL7
In the global health interoperability standards realm, Health Level Seven International (HL7) is the cool kid on the block. They’re responsible for creating technical mechanisms that revolve around FHIR-enabled standards.
Understanding HL7’s Tech Mechanisms
FHIR, or Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, is an open standard for exchanging healthcare info electronically. Developed by HL7, it’s gained traction for improving data sharing between different healthcare systems. These mechanisms are designed to meet the needs of diverse healthcare providers worldwide.
FHIR is flexible – it can be used as a standalone data exchange standard or integrated into existing systems. Perfect for this project, where the goal is widespread adoption and seamless integration.
Translating for Global Impact
HL7 and WHO are going the extra mile by translating these mechanisms into six official global languages – Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. This ensures that no region gets left behind in adopting these new global health interoperability standards.
This step isn’t just about inclusivity and fostering ownership among stakeholders worldwide. Studies have shown that inclusive strategies increase uptake rates and reduce resistance to change.
This joint venture aims to break down barriers hindering effective communication within the international medical community. Let’s hope for a more coordinated approach to tackling global health issues.
A Look Back at Past Collaborations Involving HL7
HL7 and Evernorth joined forces to improve electronic health record (EHR) standards. Together, they made EHRs more user-friendly and functional, making care coordination a piece of cake. And with Siemens, HL7 worked on clinical decision support systems because doctors need all the support they can get.
But wait, there’s more. HL7 has been involved in many other collaborations that have driven digital transformation in healthcare worldwide. They’re like the superheroes of interoperability.
What Does The Future Hold Post Recent Collaboration?
The recent partnership between HL7 and WHO is a game-changer. They’re developing guidelines to advance open interoperability standards globally. It’s all about building equitable, evidence-based digital health systems, and they’re doing it together.
This alliance also emphasizes multilingual support for SMART patient data exchange enabled by HL7 FHIR because healthcare knows no language barriers.
So, get ready for more strategic alliances from HL7. They’re working to standardize healthcare data exchange protocols worldwide while catering to diverse regional needs and languages.
FAQs
Healthcare interoperability standards are like the secret handshake that allows different healthcare systems to work together seamlessly, ensuring the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information. Find out more at HIMSS.
The four levels of interoperability are foundational, structural, semantic, and organizational, each providing a different degree of data cohesiveness and usability across different systems. Get the lowdown on NCBI.
There are messaging standards like HL7 V2.x & CDA, document sharing standards like XDS.b & IHE profiles, terminology codesets like LOINC & SNOMED CT, and service-oriented architectures like FHIR® API’s.
Interoperability in Health IT faces challenges due to diverse system architectures, and lack of standardization in data formats and terminologies used by various EHR vendors, which can hinder the seamless flow of data and impact patient care quality. Gain more insights from this article on HealthIT.gov.
Conclusion
The collaboration between WHO and HL7 on Global Health Interoperability Standards is a major step towards achieving open interoperability in healthcare.
The partnership aims to develop normative standards and technical mechanisms to improve communication and data exchange among healthcare providers, ultimately leading to better patient care.
With the implementation of WHO’s global digital health strategy, we can expect increased adoption of these interoperability standards across different healthcare settings.
TRANSFORM CARE INTO VALUE
Improve Outcomes and Care Efficiency
Opeeka’s Person-Centered Intelligence Solution (P-CIS) connects to existing electronic health records and automates processes to improve care delivery.
This collaboration holds great promise for the future of healthcare, as it will enable the development of Substitutable Medical Applications and Reusable Technologies Guidelines that can be implemented globally.
By creating a unified terminology system and establishing technical mechanisms for data translation, WHO and HL7 are paving the way for the seamless integration of health information systems worldwide.
Through this collaborative effort, we can look forward to improved coordination, efficiency, and quality in global health interoperability standards.
