HL7 Standards for Healthcare Softwares

IoT which stands for Internet of Things enables immense scope in technology revolution & lifestyle changes. Companies across the globe are investing heavily to lead the technology breakthrough & provide innovative IoT solutions. Seamless connection with internet & interconnection between different electrical & electronic devices is the goal. Imagine a world where billions of objects can sense, communicate and share information, all connected with each other over public or private Internet networks. These interconnected objects regularly gather data, analyse them and take the corresponding action. Internet of Thing is more than a smart home or connecting appliances. It includes smart cities in which traffic signal are connected and monitor utility use. It includes automation from your car to your home, from your city to the entire nation. Startups across the globe are aspiring to drive innovation for IoT.

Talking about the Healthcare industry, the United States alone is spending $3.8 trillion on an annual basis. Immense spending is done in Healthcare technology ecosystem to improve the service standards, remove redundant processes & reduce operational costing of the entire system. There are set standards, protocols, and compliances in place for Healthcare systems across different platforms to communicate & collaborate together. Health Level 7 (HL7) is an example of for the same.

HL7 provides a framework and set standards for the exchange, integration, sharing, and improvement of electronic health information. These standards define how information is packaged and communicated from one place to another. Setting the language, structure and data types required to merge systems is further facilitates by HL7. It supports clinical practice in assessment, management & delivery of health services.

HL7 (Health Level Standard Seven) Mission

• Improve care delivery
• Optimize the work process
• Enhance knowledge transfer
• Reduce ambiguity

HL7 (Health Level Standard Seven) Goals

• Promote the use of HL7 Standard worldwide through the creation of HL7 International affiliates organization.
• Develop extendible guidelines that permit structured and sort healthcare information of the type that required supporting patient care which exchanged between computer applications.
• Collaborate with healthcare information technology user to ensure that HL7 standard meets real-world requirement.

In the Healthcare industry, hospitals are using latest technology & custom software systems for remote self-monitoring of the patients. Self-monitoring benefits patients by giving them greater freedom and independence in monitoring their health, thereby free up hospital equipment for the treatment of emergencies. Using web-based application information can be collected, collaborated and centralized in a hospital database. HL7 enables communication among different custom healthcare Software applications existing in the hospital. Many of them are developed using Microsoft ASP.Net MVC Technology.

For better communication between the hospital and other different medical institutions, the HL7 standard can be used to perform data interchange. It is enough for the informational systems in these institutions to have an HL7 appropriate interface. The HL7 standard is used for interchanging information related to patients, doctors, resources, and data between hospitals. At this level, there are also data synchronization protocols that ensure data resolution among applications. By using the HL7 standard, this data exchange can be performed independently of the software solutions, operating systems or database management systems running at each hospital.

Moving into the future, there are fresher patterns of creating biodegradable materials for sensors and “lab-on-chip” hardware that can be embedded on or in patients. The sensor chips can recognize interior organ reactions to new prescription and aide the utilization of medications to infected areas for better treatment. Technology is making a real impact in healthcare globally & growing trends of IoT is definitely facilitating the same.