What is HL7

1
What is HL7?

• Health Level Seven (HL7) is an agreed protocol
  (standard), for describing the structure and
  rules of how healthcare data is to be distributed
  and understood.
• An electronic HL7 message is created by preparing
  the data using the structure and rules described
  in the HL7 standards to communicate this data
  electronically with other healthcare
  professionals or organisations in a manner their
  information systems can understand.

2
What is HL7?

• HL7 communication standard for healthcare
  environment
• Communication between nearly all institutions and
  healthcare providers
• Handles all important communication tasks
• Efficiency of the communication process

3
What is HL7?

• Formats and protocols made available for data
  transfer between healthcare information systems
• Standardisation of formats
• Unification of interfaces
• Improvement in efficiency of communication
• Minimises number of interfaces
• Minimises expenditure of implementing interfaces
• International standard

4
Types of messages

• Patient Administration
• 62 Patient administration transactions
• 238 Patient-related data items
• Orders and Observations
• Diagnostic services (Pathology, Radiology)
• Medicines and drugs
• Treatments
• Clinical trials
• Dietary
• Supply

5
Types of messages

• Queries
• Queries and responses
• Scheduling of Medical Services
• Patient Referral/Discharge
• Patient Care
• Laboratory Automation
• Financial Management
• Service billing
• E-Claims (Canada)

6
HL7 and SCTT

• Messaging Specifications
• have been developed for the current version of
  the SCTT
• posted on the PCP website to enable vendors to
  make their systems HL7 compliant
• may need to be revised for the new iteration of
  the SCTT
• require business rules to be successfully
  implemented
• Business rules will be developed as part of
  HealthSMART lead agency implementation

7
What are the benefits?

• Information you receive can be incorporated into
  your software system without having to re enter
  data (reduce duplication of effort)
• Data changes are made more simple as it
  establishes rules for integration of health
  service data now and in the future
• Better tracking of messages with automated
  acknowledgement and error loops built into the
  standards

8
What needs to happen to make it work?

• Software that is HL7 Compliant
• AHML Certification (Australian Healthcare
  Messaging Laboratory)
• A transport mechanism to enable messages to be
  sent and received in a secure format
• Business rules to provide a standard for
  implementation (everybody does it in the same
  way)