Electronic Health Records
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Mission
The goal of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Work Group is to support the HL7 mission of developing standards for EHR data, information, functionality, and interoperability. The Work Group will contribute to HL7's goal by creating and promoting appropriate and necessary standards, including:
- Functional and Information Requirements for Electronic Health Records (EHR) and systems (EHRS),
- Functional and Information Requirements for Personal Health Records (PHR) and systems (PHRS),
- Definition of a high-level framework to support the interoperability requirements and life cycles, and
- Identification of existing and emerging information requirements and other HL7 artifacts.
Charter
Work Products and Contributions to HL7 Processes
- Provide a forum for discussion about – and identification of – standards, information and definitions necessary to promote interoperability among Electronic Health Record and Personal Health Record systems. Different solutions will be examined and considered for advancement as standards within the EHR Work Group and/or within other HL7 Work Groups.
- Create and maintain an HL7-wide functional model architecture/framework.
- Create and update an internationally-focused set of models, profiles, and other artifacts related Electronic Health Record systems (e.g., the EHR-S FM).
- Create and update an internationally-focused set of models, profiles and other artifacts related to Personal Health Record systems (e.g., the PHR-S FM).
- Create and update conformance requirements for – and provide guidance in the development of – functional profiles (which are realm-, application- or care setting-specific constraints of the HL7 Functional Models. This guidance may reference data archetypes, information requirements, use cases, and/or specific standards.
- Provide industry input on data and functional requirements for the interoperable exchange of electronic health records and exchange among electronic health record systems.
- Create and update artifacts (e.g., implementation guides), documents (e.g., comments to a policy advisory committee) and examples that clarify the interoperability, functionality, and data requirements among EHR, PHR, and other health information systems.
The EHR Work Group recognizes that certain artifacts, such as messages and documents which fulfill specified functional requirements, may fall within the scope of other Work Groups. Therefore, the EHR Work Group will collaborate with other Work Groups to produce the appropriate standards.
Formal Relationships With Other HL7 Groups
The EHR Work Group will interact with other HL7 Work Groups to create and promote standards for EHR interoperability, functionality and data content including:
- Vocabulary Work Group – data content standards for EHRs
- Clinical Decision Support Work Group – EHR system functionality for clinical decision support
- Structured Documents Work Group – Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) for EHR, structure and content
- Orders and Observations Work Group – EHR content
- Security Work Group - privacy, security and confidentiality
- Patient Care Work Group – EHR content
- Pharmacy Work Group – EHR content
- Regulated Clinical Research Information Management – EHR content
- Clinical Interoperability Council – clinical requirements and data content standards for EHR and PHR systems
- Public Health and Emergency Response (PHER) Work Group – public health, emergency and first responders
- Mobile Health Work Group (provisional)
The EHR Work Group will interact with other Committees/Councils to promote use of the electronic health record standards, including:
Informal Relationships with Organizations Outside of HL7
The EHR Work Group maintains and fosters active relationships with organizations outside of HL7 as the work of these organization complement or enhance the work of the EHR Work Group. Current relationships include:
- International Organization for Standardization (ISO) – ISO TC 215 Healthcare Informatics
- US Technical Advisory Group (US TAG) to the American Standards National Institute (ANSI)
- Commite Europeen de Normalization (CEN)
- Health and Human Services (HHS), Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), and the Office of National Coordinator (ONC)
- Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT)
- Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)
- International Health Terminology Standards Organization (IHTSDO)
- Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC)
- Standards Development Organization Collaborative Organization (SCO)
- Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE)
Work Group Governance
The EHR Work Group has developed an EHR Governance and Operations Manual (EHR GOM) which is a further refinement of the HL7 Governance and Operations Manual. The EHR Work Group GOM does not (and will not) conflict with the HL7 GOM. If there are questions on process or rule, the HL7 GOM is considered the primary reference.
EHR Work Group Governance and Operations Manual (GOM)
HL7 Governance and Operations Manual
EHR Website
Go to the Special HL7 EHR Website
Decision Making Practices
Date of Last Revision
May 15, 2012