Development Without Implementation Is Meaningless

It has been 10 years since I stepped down as chair of HL7— and much has changed since then. Reorganization, growth, and international significance has propelled the organization forward, a momentum I hope to maintain over the next two years.

When HL7 began in 1987, we were a top-down organization—simply because we had no bottom. Now, a full-time CEO and CTO have joined the organization to provide top-level executive management to the organization and its relationships. Further, we have reorganized the Technical Steering Committee into a more focused, efficient, and coordinated group that should make HL7 a more effective body.

The need for reorganization became increasingly apparent as HL7 continued to grow, not only within the organization, but also within the global community. In the beginning, the working group meetings were attended by as few as 15 members. As HL7 grew, I remember the difficulties we experienced in scheduling the meetings on a day or time when everyone could participate. Now, we have more organizational and individual members, more benefactors, and a greater variety of activities for standards development. Many organizations must send more than 15 people to an HL7 meeting to keep track of the various activities.

Most importantly, HL7 now must recognize its role in the world of global standards and its responsibility to that community. As countries and stakeholders depend more on effectively integrating IT standards into health care, HL7 must make sure the standards we create are appropriate and complete, usable and available, and delivered on a timely basis. To accomplish that, HL7 must identify where standards are missing, and acknowledge the needs and priorities of the broader standards community. As best we can, we must incorporate those priorities into our own. Further, HL7 has a commitment to work with other groups to produce unique solutions to common problems. In some cases, this commitment might conflict with the organization’s goals. However, in my mind, HL7 is not a thing, but an environment that welcomes all and, with hard work, accomplishes a great deal.

HL7 has experienced some discomfort during the reorganization process. Concerns have been expressed regarding the loss of freedom, constraints on a volunteer organization, top down directives, and loss of people, work, and impact. It is my hope that working over the next two years with the CEO, the CTO, the new TSC, the Board, and the membership, HL7 can make great strides forward. We need to become nimble in creating standards, more focused in balloting processes, and more rigorous in testing and implementing our standards to meet the needs of the industry.

I am always available and open to suggestions and concerns. Thanks for another time around.

Ed Hammond
Chair, HL7

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