HL7 Organization
Jan/090
About the HL7 organizations.
When it comes to HL7 – Health Level 7 – many people get confused about whether HL7 stands for the governing body or about the HL7 standard itself. The truth of the matter is that HL7 can really mean both. In general, I’ve found that most people use the full term, Health Level 7, to refer to the HL7 organization as a whole – and use HL7 when referring to the standard or protocol.
So who is the HL7 Organization (or Health Level 7 organization if we’re trying to be wordy).
Well, the HL7 organization is the group of people – and companies – that come together through annual meetings and working groups to put forward the changes and direction of the standard. When most think of the HL7 organization, they are probably thinking about the USA based Health Level 7 group. While this does seem to be the main arm of the organization, there are also local chapters of the HL7 organization, like HL7 Canada, HL7 Australia and so on.
From what I can tell, it seems like most of these organizations still refer back to the USA based HL7 organization – but they are responsible for local based training and certification. The HL7 organization - whether USA or abroad – doesn’t just meet to build new fields and sub-fields for the standard, they are also the body that conducts education summits and certification courses. While I’ve been working in the HL7 world for several years now, I’ve not yet personally attended one of these sessions. I was recently looking on their website and noticed they are running another educational summit this spring in Las Vegas, so for the first time I’m thinking about taking their prep course and test – to become HL7 certified. I don’t know how many vendors or healthcare operations actually care about HL7 certification, but I think it would be a great excuse to visit Vegas and see exactly what goes on during the HL7 organizational meetings.
Anyway, I hope that clears up – at least a little bit – the difference between the Health Level 7 Organization and the HL7 standard. My suggestion would be that you visit the USA based organization’s website or maybe your local affiliate and read what they have to say.