Chapter 1

📖 1. FHIR in brief

Key facts about HL7® FHIR®

Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (HL7® FHIR®)1 is a standard published by HL7 International for representing and exchanging healthcare information digitally.2

FHIR organizes information into small, reusable building blocks called resources. A resource type describes a kind of healthcare concept, such as Patient, Observation, MedicationRequest, or Practitioner. A resource instance contains the information for one particular patient, observation, request, or practitioner.

Resources can refer to one another. For example, an Observation can refer to the Patient it is about. Related resources can also travel together in a Bundle.

FHIR uses technologies that many software teams already know:

  • JSON and XML are common formats for representing a resource;
  • HTTP is the web protocol commonly used to send requests and responses; and
  • a RESTful API is one common way to exchange FHIR resources.

FHIR keeps its base resources focused on information that is common across many settings. A profile sets more specific rules for a particular use case. A governed extension can represent information that is not present in the base resource. Projects commonly publish profiles, extensions, terminology rules, and other requirements together in an implementation guide.

FHIR supports several exchange approaches, including RESTful APIs, documents, messaging, subscriptions, and operations. These approaches overlap, and the specification evolves, so there is no fixed count that learners need to memorize.

What FHIR does not guarantee

FHIR supplies common structures and exchange rules, but it does not by itself guarantee that data is correct, that two organizations interpret every code in the same way, or that a deployment is secure and legally compliant. Those outcomes also depend on agreed implementation guides, terminology, validation, security controls, governance, and people.

FHIR is a standard, not an electronic health record, app, database, user interface, clinical guideline, or workflow.

Official HL7® FHIR® documentation

Official introduction for clinicians

  1. HL7, FHIR and the FHIR [FLAME DESIGN] are the registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International and their use does not constitute endorsement by HL7. ↩︎

  2. Official HL7 FHIR documentation ↩︎