What is FHIR? An Explanation of the Standard for Electronic Healthcare Information Exchange

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FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) is a standardized framework for exchanging medical information, developed by the non-profit organization HL7. Its primary goal is to support 'Interoperability,' which allows diverse information systems and devices—across organizational, regional, and national boundaries—to access, exchange, interpret, and cooperatively use data. FHIR adopts a modular structure called 'resources' based on web technologies (such as HTTP, XML, JSON, and OAuth). This resource model enables solving clinical and administrative problems in a safe and scalable manner. A basic FHIR resource includes elements like a unique identifier (id), metadata (meta), and language information. By defining specific entities, such as 'Patient,' as resources and structuring the data in formats like JSON, FHIR achieves standardized and secure healthcare information exchange. It is an essential tool in modern digital healthcare, playing a crucial role in streamlining data connectivity.