Orders and Observations

Laboratory (Archived) Anatomic Pathology (Archived) Clinical Statement (Archived)

Background

2021 Work Group Health All-Star Award

This group was formed at the onset of HL7 to address transmission of Orders and Observations. The initial focus was on laboratory test results because laboratory computer systems were the major source of electronic results back then. The intent was always to cover general observations, findings, impressions recorded as quantitative, qualitative, codes, or narrative text. The standard is now being used for such content.

Mission

The mission of the Orders and Observation work group is to define information exchange capabilities to support the order/scheduling and clinical event management/reporting requirements between the stakeholders in the healthcare organization regarding patients, non-patients, people, other species, or inanimate objects. These information exchanges are not limited to intra-organizational transactions, but may cross organizational boundaries. These information exchanges may involve messages, documents, services, and other HL7 constructs.

Charter

The basic charter of the Orders and Observation work group is to continue to support the ongoing development of Version 2.x and ensuring that equivalent functionality is present in HL7 Version 3.0 and FHIR.

Work Products and Contributions to HL7 Processes

The Work Group will develop specifications using the principles and language of the Services Aware Interoperability Framework (SAIF) Canonical Definition (CD).

The Work Group plans on creating and maintaining artifacts in the following areas:

 

  • Version 2.x, chapters 4, 4a, 7, 13, 17, and parts of chapter 8
  • General orders and results
  • Lab test orders and results
  • Lab Automation
  • Specimen management
  • Bloodbank
  • Radiology orders and results
  • Medication prescriptions, management, and administration
  • Dietary orders
  • Supply
  • Logistics
  • Healthcare devices orders and observations
  • Clinical Trials
  • Product Experience

    It should be noted that many of these areas of information exchange overlap with other HL7 work groups. Since Orders and Observations has responsibility for ongoing maintenance of 2.x standards in these areas and many of the overlapping work groups work solely on V3, this overlap will continue and will require formal coordination with various work groups.

    When delineating responsibilities with other work groups, the Orders and Observation work group focuses on ensuring general/composite order/scheduling and observation/clinical event information exchange capabilities are:

    • available across the various work groups involved in orders/scheduling and observations/clinical events
    • consistent within domains and across versions.
  • Version 2.x implementation guides related to the above chapters.
  • Responsible for patterns, messages, documents, services, templates, and implementation guides for:
    • Version 3.0 Orders Domain
      • contributing HL7 templates to address scheduling of orders in Version 3 Scheduling artifacts
    • Version 3.0 Clinical Event Domain (Observations)
    • Version 3.0 Laboratory Domain
    • Version 3.0 Specimen Domain
    • Version 3.0 Blood, Tissue and Organ Domain
    • Version 3.0 Common Product Model
    • Version 3.0 Materials Management
    • Version 3.0 Nutrition
    • Version 3.0 Implantable Devices
  • FHIR Resources as allocated by the FHIR Management Group

Formal Relationships With Other HL7 Groups

The Orders and Observations work group has formal relationships with the following HL7 groups, in many cases as a result of V2.x and V3 content overlaps.

  • Anatomic Pathology
  • Clinical Genomics
  • Clinical Statement
  • FHIR Management Group
  • Healthcare Devices
  • Imaging Integration
  • Patient Administration
  • Patient Care
  • Patient Safety
  • Pharmacy
  • Public Health and Emergency Response
  • RCRIM
  • Structured Documents
  • Structure and Semantic Design steering division

Formal Relationship With Groups Outside of HL7

The Orders and Observations Work Group does not have any formal relationships with groups outside of HL7 at this time.

 

2016 Work Group Health All-Star Award
2016 Work Group Health All-Star Award Winner

This WG earned a WG Healthiest Star rating in each of the three trimesters measured in 2016.


2018 Work Group Health All-Star Award
2018 Work Group Health All-Star Award Winner

This WG earned a WG Healthiest Star rating in each of the three trimesters measured in 2018.


2019 Work Group Health All-Star Award
2019 Work Group Health All-Star Award Winner

This WG earned a WG Healthiest Star rating in each of the three trimesters measured in 2019.


2020 May Work Group Health Star Winner
2020 May Work Group Health Gold Star Award Winner

This Work Group earned a WG Healthiest Star rating in May 2020.


2020 Work Group Health All-Star Award
2020 Work Group Health All-Star Award Winner

This WG earned a WG Healthiest Star rating in each of the three trimesters measured in 2020.


2021 May Work Group Health Star Winner
2021 May Work Group Health Gold Star Award Winner

This Work Group earned a WG Healthiest Star rating in May 2021.


 

Date of Last Revision

April 14, 2016