What is FHIR? Explaining the New Standard for Healthcare Data Exchange

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HL7 FHIR stands for Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources and defines how medical information can be exchanged between disparate computer systems, regardless of how the information is stored. It aims to ensure that clinical and administrative data are safely provided to authorized individuals, ultimately enabling patients to receive appropriate care. Development began in 2012, responding to the market need for faster, easier, and more effective exchange methods due to the rapid increase in medical data and the advancement of the 'app' economy. By adopting a REST approach—which describes how individual units of information ('resources') can be easily shared—FHIR leverages existing Web standards, significantly lowering the barrier to entry for software developers. The standard is noted for its ease of implementation, free availability, and support from major vendors like Apple, Microsoft, Google, Epic, and Cerner. It builds upon previous HL7 standards (Version 2 and CDA®) while utilizing a foundation of Web standards such as XML, JSON, HTTP, and OAuth. FHIR is also utilized by other standardization bodies like IHE. It is positioned as a groundbreaking step in removing many barriers to medical data exchange, despite the complexity of information requirements.