Keesha Mariel P.

Alimon Medical Informatics 1

Section B

October 7, 2013

HL7 in the Philippines Health Level Seven (HL7), is a non-profit organization involved in the development of international healthcare informatics interoperability standards. It is an organization dedicated to
providing a comprehensive framework and related standards for the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information that supports clinical practice and the management, delivery and evaluation of health services. HL7 today, is one of the most widely discussed and used application data standards in the information technology industry. Originally developed in 1987, HL7 is now in use in more

than twenty countries around the world. The Philippines, however, still remains unsuccessful in its attempt to affiliate with the organization and integrate its products and services in our health care system and workflow. But with our countrys ongoing multi-sectoral effort to affiliate with HL7.org, the health IT community are still positive that soon, the Philippines will be a member of the organizations international council bringing a big opportunity for the local healthcare IT industry. According to Dr. Mike Muin, a healthcare IT professional in the Philippines and a blogger of mikemuin.com, other hospitals in the country now makes use of HL7. St. Lukes Medical Center both in Quezon and Global, Taguig, as well as The Medical City uses HL7 as a messaging protocol and as a way to integrate with the hospitals ancillary systems such as the laboratory, radiology and the hospitals information system. Although some hospitals are also using HL7 for integration, they still lack the knowledge about it as a protocol, standard or organization. HL7 may be the key to a standards-driven healthcare interoperability leading to a more improved IT-enabled clinical workflows. The HL7 interface may also improve workflow by allowing medical professionals to focus more on their core business activities like provision of a more thorough and quality healthcare to patients. Instead of having to write specifications from scratch each time data needs to be sent between two systems, one can now make a reference to a uniform document through this messaging standard. The Philippine government is pro-HL7. Currently, the Department of Health is doing several efforts to improve the delivery of health services and management of health systems in the country through the use of information and communication technologies for health, in which HL7 will form part of the core standards to be implemented nationwide. Hopefully, in time, these adoption will provide en efficient and effective foundation for health investments and innovation yielding continuously advanced and considerable benefits to every individual, public health, and the health care sector and professionals as well.
Sources: http://mikemuin.com/ http://www.med-scribe.com/understanding-hl7-interface-role-in-health-information.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_Level_7 http://www.hl7.org/about/index.cfm?ref=nav