[Outline of Health Level Seven (HL7) standard]

Health Level Seven (HL7) is a standard for medical informatics exchange between healthcare providers. Its applicable area includes order entry of many kinds, test result reporting, prescriptions, Admit/Discharge/Transfer of patient, etc. It is one of the most successful medical standards. Merits of HL7 are 1) its richness of elements of details for laboratory test orders and results, 2) its protocol definitions for HIS-LIS data exchange, 3) its standard body's healthy management, and 4) its popularity makes related softwares more available and less expensive. Limitations of HL7 are 1) its difficulty of expression of clinical findings, signs, and symptoms, which comprise electronic medical records, all because of lack of adequate code of these items, and 2) its being a description of fixed timing of examination results, not being a sequence of episode of the patient. HL7 Japan have been founded in 1998, as the 7th international affiliate of HL7. Its secretariat facility is provided by JAHIS (Japan Association of Healthcare Information System vendors). Its activities comprise; 1) HL7 seminars held more than 3 times each year, 2) Japanese language publication of HL7 standards and related documents, and 3) submission of requirements from Japanese users to HL7 USA for coming versions.