Healthcare IT News - November 2007 - (Page 28) 28 Healthcare IT News ■ November 2007 www.HealthcareITNews.com Catching Up with HL7 held transition from volunGroup HAnnual Plenary andI Working its a21st teerWe couldtoimagine a expanded paid staff to efforts a much Meeting in mid-September. have missed few ensure efficiency and consistency of “prodEALTH LEVEL SEVEN (HL7) meetings, so this was an opportunity to catch uct.” And while HL7 is expanding staff and up with their activities and share funding more facilitators, it some of my impressions. remains essentially dependent STANDARDS on volunteer experts from many “Transition,” the meeting’s theme, was discussed during the organizations. plenary session and at the One might suggest HL7 is in a Technical Steering Committee transition from a messaging(TSC) and Board meetings. based to document-centric stanby Ed Larsen However, for this longtime dards’ organization or in a transiobserver, it is not clear from whence the transi- tion from the legacy Version 2.X messaging tion comes and to where it is heading. standards to the UML-based and RIM-derived We might be tempted to say HL7 is in tran- Version 3.0. However, that is too simplistic, as sition from an older to a newer generation of we discuss in the online version of this leadership and direction, but the “new” chair, Standards Insight. the estimable Ed Hammond, is in his third We might find a clue in the reorganization of tour. The new CEO, Charles Jaffe, claims long- the TSC, now consisting of four “Steering time HL7 participation, and the new CTO is Divisions:” Domain Experts, Foundation & the longtime co-chair of the TSC. So, it is not Technology, Structure & Semantic Design and a transition in leadership. Technical & Support Services. A closer look at We could look at the transition as one from how the four Steering Divisions were formed an organization with narrow national interests gives some additional insight. Domain experts, into a truly global standards development closer to end users than standards developers, organization. With 30 international affiliates— are cordoned off in their sector, away from the adding several more each year, HL7 is the back- technology of standards. Supporting operations bone of a number of international HIT initia- are separated in the less visible corner of technitives. It has entered into an international har- cal workers and infrastructure. The business of monization effort with the International HL7 is found within the Foundations & Organization for Standardization (ISO) and Technology and Structure & Semantic Design the European Committee for Standardization steering divisions. The former embraces model(CEN). However, it remains highly dependent ing, messaging, conformance, templates and on its US members and funding. service-oriented architecture, the core of V2/V3 INSIGHT messaging. The latter encompasses documents and records and associated healthcare workflow, such as orders, administration and financial management. A key decision was to put the Vocabulary Technical Committee within the “old guard” messaging group, not within the new line documents and records. There are some loose ends in the transition, of course. The future of V3 messaging is probably at the top of the list. Version 2.X messaging is well established, certainly in the United States, as a means of moving data between different systems and applications within organizations. Documents or summary records are becoming the norm when two different healthcare organizations need to exchange information, except in well-defined and established business arrangements, such as sending laboratory reports or prescriptions to pharmacies. The fact HL7 thinks of itself as advancing on three axes—1) domain experts, 2) messages and implementations and 3) documents and workflow—might be as good an interpretation as any. Like all of us, HL7 is changing. I hope it does not take its “transition” too seriously, but rather focuses on delivering the basic clinical information standards upon which we all depend. ■ Ed Larsen is an independent strategy consultant who tracks interoperability standards for HIMSS. For the full article, go to Standards Insight on the HIMSS Member start page. Comments or questions can be sent to erlarsen@erlinc.com. PUBLICATIONS STAFF VICE PRESIDENT, COMMUNICATIONS Fran Perveiler Nancy Vitucci MANAGER, PUBLICATIONS CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS SENIOR MANAGERS Joyce Lofstrom Sharolyn Rosier Hyson SENIOR EDITOR Matt Schlossberg COORDINATOR, COMMUNICATIONS Cari McLean CHAIR BOARD OF DIRECTORS John Wade, FCHIME, FHIMSS Vice President/Chief Information Officer Saint Luke’s Health System VICE CHAIR Victoria Bradley, DNP, RN, FHIMSS Chief Nursing Informatics Officer Eclipsys CHAIR ELECT Charles E. Christian, FCHIME, FHIMSS Director, Information Systems/Chief Information Officer Good Samaritan Hospital VICE CHAIR ELECT HIMSS Virtual Conference Education Sessions Available On Demand lthough the live segment of the second HIMSS Virtual Conference & Expo has concluded, the event’s educational sessions are available to paid registrants on demand for 90 days. Jan. 4, 2008 is the final day for registration. Harvard Medical’s Dr. Robert Crone and Dr. John Helfrick launched the conference with a discussion on the explosive growth of medical tourism and its impact on establishing global standards for patient care and health information exchange. Cleveland Clinic CIO C. Martin Harris, MD, kicked off day two of the conference with a presentation on eEnabled medical practices. The conference featured 12 IT-focused education sessions applicable to all healthcare professionals. Popular topics included the business side of EHR implementation, purchasing systems with interoperability built-in, the impact of mobile devices on nursing workflows, solutions for using IT to optimize response and surveillance systems, and discussions on RHIO sustainability. Accessing the education sessions requires paid registration; $85 for HIMSS Members and $110 for nonmembers. Access to the conference’s keynote sessions is free. To check out this exclusive online event, visit www.himssvirtual.org. ■ Liz Johnson, FHIMSS Vice President, Applied Clinical Informatics Tenet Healthcare Corp. Margret Amatayakul, RHIA, CHPS, FHIMSS President Margaret A. Consulting, LLC Barry Chaiken, MD, FHIMSS Associate Chief Medical Officer BearingPoint Inc. John H. Daniels, FACHE, CPHIMS, CHPS, FHIMSS Chief Information Officer Evolvent Technologies Inc. John Hansmann, FHIMSS Regional Manager, Management Engineering Intermountain Health Care C. Martin Harris, MD, MBA, FHIMSS Chief Information Officer and Chairman Information Technology Division Executive Director eCleveland Clinic The Cleveland Clinic Foundation Joy G. Keeler, MBA Principal Health Information Technology The MITRE Corp. Jay Srini, FHIMSS Vice President, Emerging Technologies University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Jonathan M. Teich, MD, PhD, FHIMSS Chief Medical Informatics Officer Elsevier Health Sciences PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER H. Stephen Lieber, CAE HIMSS ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS HIMSS08 Pre-Conference Symposia HIMSS08 Exhibition Debuts Reach New Audiences s accurate information transfer depends on widespread use and acceptance of new technology, and as more healthcare organizations adopt electronic health records, specialized areas of healthcare are beginning to explore the increasing role technology will play in delivering better patient care. To meet the needs of these emerging audiences, HIMSS will host pre-conference symposia before HIMSS08 begins on Saturday, Feb. 23, and Sunday, Feb. 24. New to annual conference, the Business Information Systems Symposium will explore the significant changes occurring in the way healthcare is being delivered and paid for. Real-Time Financial Transactions— What This Means to You targets professionals from clearing houses, software vendors, providers, health plans, financial institutions and other e-commerce players. This year’s Payor Symposium, The PayorProvider Partnership—Bridges to Improved Quality Outcomes, aims to open a new discussion between payors and providers around the synergies between healthcare information, consumerism and quality. Speakers will dis- cuss the movement to high-deductible health plans and the needs these will generate for consumers, providers and payors. The RHIO/HIE Symposium, Advancing Your RHIO for Successful Sustainability, will highlight long-term, winning business models of RHIO communities that have faced obstacles and challenges with success. Speakers will examine the intersection of state-level initiatives, successful finance and business models, funding resources, and the impact of privacy and security on the RHIO environment. For supply-chain professionals, HIMSS and its Supply-Chain Management SIG, and the Association for Healthcare Resource and Materials Management designed the SupplyChain Management Symposium, which covers the gamut of topics impacting those who work closely with CIOs. Optimizing SupplyChain Performance in the Enterprise targets those who work within the supply chain, i.e., finance, IT analysts, clinicians and others. To learn more about the pre-conference symposia and to register, visit www.himssconference.org. ■ New Products, Services ttendees at the 2008 Annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition interested in new products and services should head to the 900plus vendor exhibition. The New Product Launch that occurs each year at the HIMSS Annual Conference shines a light on companies demonstrating new products and services. The New Product Launch at HIMSS08 will feature new products categorized by topic. Participating companies and their new products will be featured online at www.himssconference.org/exhibition, throughout the lobbies of the Orange County Convention Center at the Surf-the-Net terminals and in the HIMSS Daily Insider beginning Monday, Feb. 25. Attendees looking to hear about a particular new product or service will want http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.himssvirtual.org http://www.himssconference.org/exhibition http://www.himssconference.org/exhibition http://www.himssconference.org http://www.himssconference.org
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