Essential Knowledge for the Era of Medical DX: Explaining HL7 FHIR and Standardized Electronic Health Records

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The Japanese medical industry is currently at a major turning point towards 'Medical DX' (Digital Transformation). The international standard 'HL7 FHIR' and the government-promoted 'Standardized EHR' are central to this shift. Previously, electronic health records developed by various manufacturers used proprietary standards, leading to difficulties in sharing data between systems and incurring massive costs during system migration (vendor lock-in). HL7 FHIR is a next-generation international standard built on modern web technologies like Web APIs. It manages patient information in small units called 'resources,' allowing for flexible transmission of only the necessary data. The 'Standardized EHR (Introduction Version)' is a cloud-based system incorporating this FHIR, which the government aims to provide and certify to enable affordable and easy adoption even by smaller clinics. Adopting these new standards facilitates regional medical collaboration and promotes patient engagement through Personal Health Records (PHR). Furthermore, because data can be handled using standard specifications, it minimizes costs when migrating systems in the future. Clinics are advised to select systems based on their FHIR compliance, cloud architecture, and robust API connectivity with other systems.