FHIR and HL7 explained for hospital leadership
Interoperability claims are easy to make and hard to verify. These are the standards involved, in plain terms, and the questions that separate a real interface from a brochure line.
Key takeaways
- HL7 v2 messaging still carries most hospital laboratory and admission traffic.
- FHIR R4 is the modern, resource-based standard for sharing records between organisations.
- DICOM handles imaging studies; a FHIR claim says nothing about imaging.
- Ask which resources are supported, in which direction, and what has been tested with a named partner.
The three standards you will meet
- HL7 v2: message-based exchange, widely used for admissions, orders and laboratory results
- FHIR R4: resource-based exchange over web APIs — patients, observations, medications, encounters
- DICOM: the imaging standard for studies and viewers
Questions to ask any vendor
- Which FHIR resources are supported, and in which direction?
- Is terminology mapped, and which code systems are used?
- What happens to a message that fails validation — is it queued, alerted and retried?
- Can you show an exchange log and an audit trail for a real transaction?
- Which partner systems has this been tested against?
Where MedFlow stands
- FHIR R4-ready endpoints for demographics, observations and results where configured and tested
- HL7 v2 inbound message handling for admissions and results
- DICOM-compatible imaging workflow with a built-in study viewer
- Terminology mapping, exchange logging and an audit trail per exchange
- Partner trust configuration and consent directives for health-information exchange
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