At the recent HIMSS meeting in Chicago, I enjoyed walking around the exhibit hall and hearing the words "HL7" frequently included in conversations. At the HL7 Booth, the most frequent questions I was asked were "How do I learn about HL7? Everybody tells me I need to use HL7. How do I learn what to do?" How would you answer that question?

My first suggestion is that they come to an HL7 meeting, attend the First-Time Attendee Orientation, and then select some tutorials that seem of interest. I also suggest that they start out slowly, choosing the introductory tutorials before tackling more complex ones. While I think that is the correct advice, I also began wondering how long it would take them to come up to speed. How would they learn enough to select the correct tutorials? We now have the online HL7 eLearning Orientation Course, which I think is excellent. But, even so, this pathway would likely take a year to really get into HL7. Furthermore, how many people would a small company need to send to a meeting in order to understand HL7 standards enough to build HL7’s standards into their product?

For that matter, we could raise the same question about any of the HL7 affiliates. How many attendees from a single country are necessary to truly engage in HL7? Many of the larger countries typically have between 10 and 15 attendees. Smaller countries may have only one attendee. Obviously, to engage and influence a particular standard or a particular domain requires physical presence. How important is it to be at an HL7 Working Group Meeting from the perspective of learning and being aware of what is happening, of being able to influence an outcome, or of providing leadership? The obvious answer is that it is necessary to be present.

Understanding the importance of consistent attendance at HL7 Working Group Meetings is becoming increasingly necessary. As an international organization, HL7 needs input from the international community to ensure that our standards can be both global and meet the requirements of a particular country. The HL7 Board currently supports a policy that one HL7 Working Group Meeting will be held outside the United States each year. Those meetings are smaller in attendance, which has a financial impact on HL7. However, more importantly, 15 work groups did not meet in Kyoto. With a group that meets only three times a year, losing one productive meeting is significant. Still, I appreciate and support the concept of one Working Group Meeting outside the US each year. Are there other solutions that will permit moving the meetings around the world and not lose productivity?

Concepts of virtual meetings are being discussed and even been tried in other groups. Second Life is one tool that has been effectively used for this purpose. It is possible to have a combination of both face-to-face and virtual meetings at the same time. I am interested in perhaps trying an experiment, using Second Life, for a meeting with one or more work groups. Anyone interested?

W. Ed Hammond, Ph.D.
Chairman of the Board, Health Level Seven, Inc®