In this article, I’ll provide an update on various events during the year’s second half and highlight some of the other activities and accomplishments from HL7 Headquarters.
HL7 FHIR Connectathons
For those unfamiliar with the concept of a Connectathon, the HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) Connectathons feature hands-on FHIR development and testing. Implementers and developers come together to hold technical discussions that advance the FHIR specification, develop FHIR-based solutions, and exchange data with other FHIR interfaces. Connectathons are a great opportunity to work directly with FHIR developers and senior FHIR standards development team members.
HL7 has hosted two Connectathons in recent months, one during the summer for CMS and another right before the September Working Group meeting.
HL7 has hosted the CMS Connectathon during the summer since 2020. This is a very popular event, and registrations have risen from 332 in 2020 to 1508 in 2024! This summer’s event was held virtually on July 16-18, including several speakers on the first day and 16 connectathon tracks during the second and third days. The speaker slides and track descriptions are available here.
The most recent Connectathon, which convened Sept 21 – 22 in Atlanta, GA, offered 36 tracks and attracted 464 participants. Of note was a by-invitation-only track to advance the CDC’s Data Modernization Initiative, which attracted over 50 participants. A complete list of tracks and other information about this most recent connection can be found here.
Plenary and WGM+ Event
The 38th Plenary Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, attracted a full house of attendees.
HL7 celebrated its 38th Plenary meeting in Atlanta, GA, on Monday, September 23. The theme of the Plenary meeting and the WGM+ event was Building Futures Bridging Borders: the intersection of AI and Global FHIR Innovation. Micky Tripathi, PhD, MPP, Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy; National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer (Acting) at ASTP,kicked off the Plenary by providing a virtual presentation on the work of his office and changes and priorities for the coming year, including AI. Our second presentation was from the FBI Atlanta Field office titled Navigating Cybersecurity Threats and Healthcare Fraud Trends. Due to the nature of the FBI’s work, we agreed not to share the names of their speakers beyond the event. Fernando Embcke Bosch, MD, concluded the morning Plenary session with a presentation titled Integrating Large Language Models Into an Electronic Health Record: Challenges and Insights at Clinica Alemana de Santiago, Chile. All three speakers shared valuable information, and their presentations were well-received.
The WGM+ portion of our meeting convened during the afternoon of September 23 and concluded at lunch on Tuesday, September 24. A total of 512 attendees participated in the WGM+ event. The WGM+ provided two tracks, one of Artificial Intelligence and the other on Global Innovations. Many of the session speakers were HL7 members or community members who shared their projects and insights. One of the highlights of the WGM+ event, at least for me, was the FHIR Applications Roundtable on Monday afternoon, which included the following six presentations/demonstrations on FHIR applications currently in use:
1. Jon Duke – SmartChart
Description: Automated chart abstraction for public health and clinical research
2. Paul Lynch – Research Data Finder
Problem the app solves: Assists researchers in selecting a pool of patients matching specified criteria, and then pulling related FHIR resource data
3. Dan Paseltiner – DIBBs TEFCA Query Connector
Problem the app solves: Our tool enables public health agencies to query FHIR APIs exposed by EHRs via a TEFCA QHIN or direct point-to-point connections.
4. Takuya Shinozu, Satoshi Abe, and Toshiaki Kato – Firebird
Problem the app solves: Image exchanging with FHIR
5. Nicolas Riss – Mon Espace Santé & Annuaire Santé
Problems the app solves: 1) National database with vital signs, medical appointments & medical documents and 2) Share data about healthcare professionals
6. John D’Amore – Interhospital Transfer FHIR App
Problem the app solves: Assembly of information from internal and external FHIR servers for a consolidated view of information for acute hospital transfers
Working Group Meeting
The regular Working Group Meeting was held Tuesday afternoon through Friday and attracted 461 attendees. The annual business meeting on Wednesday morning is also a highlight of our September meeting as it provides membership with a “state of the union” address from our Board chair and the organization’s treasurer. The Wednesday morning general session is also a time when we recognize our newly elected leadership, the recipients of the Edward Hammond Volunteer of the Year Awards and introduce the newly elected class of HL7 Fellows.
Results of Leadership Elections
Board of Directors
The following members were elected to the HL7 board of directors for the 2025-2026 term:
- Chair-Elect – Carol Macumber, Executive Vice President of Clinical Architecture, as Chair-Elect in 2025 and Board Chair for 2026-2027
- Secretary — Yan Heras, PhD, Principal, Optimum eHealth LLC
- Director — Gora Datta, FHL7, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, CAL2CAL Corporation
- Director — Ken Rubin, FHL7, Senior Advisor, Standards and Interoperability, CIDMO, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
- Affiliate Director — Ron Parker, FHL7, Chair, HL7 Canada; Principal, Parker Digital Health Consulting Inc.
- Affiliate Director — Line Saele, Chair, HL7 Norway; Enterprise Architect, Norwegian Institute of Public Health I
International Council
International Council Co-Chair Elections – Two members were elected as co-chairs of the HL7 International Council for the 2025-2026 term:
- Fernando Campos, FHL7, Chair, HL7 Argentina; Area Chief Software Engineer, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires
- Line Saele, Chair, HL7 Norway; Enterprise Architect, Norwegian Institute of Public Health HL7
Technical Steering Committee Elections – The following members were elected to the HL7 technical steering committee for the 2025-2026 term:
- Implementation Representative — Linda Michaelsen, Director, Healthcare Interoperability Standards, Optum
- Affiliate Representative — Giorgio Cangioli, Vice Board Chair, HL7 Italy; Technical Lead, HL7 Europe
- Work Group Representatives — Virginia Lorenzi, FHL7, Lead Technical Analyst, New York-Presbyterian Hospital; Brett Marquard, FHL7, Principal, WaveOne Associates Inc.; Juliet Rubini, Senior Lead, Clinical Programs, Mathematica
Ed Hammond Volunteer of the Year Award Recipients
HL7 honored three members with the 27th annual W. Edward Hammond, Ph.D. Volunteer of the Year Award. Established in 1997, the award is named after Dr. Ed Hammond, one of HL7’s most active volunteers, a founding member, and a past board chair. It recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to HL7’s success.
The 2024 recipients include:
Stephen Chu, Ph.D.
Fellow, Australian Institute of Digital Health
Erin Holt Coyne, MPH, Chief Public Health Informatics Officer, Tennessee Department of Health
Floyd Eisenberg, MD, President, iParsimony LLC
The 2024 Class of John Quinn HL7 Fellows
The award was established to recognize HL7 members with at least 15 years of active membership as well as outstanding service, commitment, and contributions to HL7. The award is named in memory of an HL7 founding member, John Quinn, who served as the organization’s second board chair, the long-time chair of the Technical Steering Committee and the first chief technology officer.
The 2024 recipients of the John Quinn HL7 Fellowship Award include:
- Christof Gessner, Board Member, HL7 Germany
- Kensaku Kawamoto, MD, PhD, Associate Chief Medical Information Officer, University of Utah Health Care
- Brett Marquard, Principal, WaveOne Associates Inc.
- Mary Kay McDaniel, Consultant, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
- John Moehrke, Healthcare Informatics Standards Architect, By Light Professional IT Services LLC
- Amit Popat, Director of Integration Standards and Regulations, Epic
- Walter Suarez, MD, Executive Director, Health IT Strategy and Policy, Kaiser Permanente
- Stefano Lotti, Chair, HL7 Italy
Other Notable Achievements
- First-time Attendee Program – HL7 staff members Daniel Bach and Sadhana Alangar, PhD, along with the Education Advisory Committee, launched the first-time attendee program again this year. We’ve had good participation in this program, which helps to acclimate first-time attendees to our meetings and to our community. First-time attendees are paired with mentor before the WGM begins so that they can ask and receive answers about our meetings and our organization before the meeting begins. Part of the program introduces new attendees to an actual work group meeting, so they can observe how these groups work and manage their discussions.
- New Member Onboarding – HL7 Headquarters staff has also been working on a new member onboarding program that will launch before the end of the year. We understand that engaging with HL7 can seem scary and daunting for new members. We’ll invite new members to participate in one of four cohorts based on their interests and then embark on the journey of becoming engaged members with like-minded new members. Topics will include everything from learning how to ballot, how to use and navigate our Confluence site, how to vote in elections, etc. We hope that these cohorts will become self-directing and step in to mentor new cohorts in the future. This effort is being led by HL7 staffers Daniel Bach, Pat Guerra and Linda Jenkins.
- New Case Studies – Our marketing team has been working to update our case studies for non-technical audiences. While many individuals come to our website seeking information about our standards and how they’ve made a difference at various organizations, we need to provide that information in a way that a non-technical person with little knowledge of our standards can understand. Pat Guerra, our marketing director; Andrea Ribick, our director of communications; and Laura Mitter, HL7 design director, have updated some of our most compelling use cases and the related website landing page to be more attractive to non-technical audiences. You’ll find that information here.
- New Format for Our Annual Report – Andrea Ribick, Pat Guerra and Laura Mitter also collaborated to give a fresh new look to our Annual Report. Take a look here.
- Published All Ballot Cycles on Time – HL7 managed over 100 ballot items in 2024. Over half of these were FHIR-related ballots. There were approximately 30 on CDA, two on Version 2, and 18 related to other standards. As seasoned HL7 know, there are many steps to starting a standards or IG project in HL7 and tracking it through the various steps to get it published. Many thanks to Dave Hamill, Lynn Laakso, and Anne Wizauer for the many hours they spend each month to keep our ballot projects and documents moving in the right direction while adhering to HL7 and ANSI processes.
- Updated and Redesigned our HL7 Essentials Page – Whether you are new to HL7 or a seasoned expert, the HL7 Essentials page on the Confluence site is a critical tool for navigating the HL7 landscape. HL7 staff member Anne Wizauer spearheaded a project to update the look and feel and content of this vital page based on feedback from the community. If you haven’t visited the HL7 Essential page in a while, take a look here.
- Updated our Security Measures – Like many organizations, HL7’s website, Confluence site and other related IT assets have experienced cybersecurity attacks throughout the year. Many thanks to our tech team, Eric Schmitt, Chad Neale, Josh Procious, and Jon, for instituting several additional measures to ensure the security of our assets during the last year. This includes implementing a product that detects risky email behavior by employees (clicking on dangerous links, responding to phishing emails, etc.) and coaches employees who do so to improve our overall security culture at HL7 HQ and to reduce human risk factors. Most recently, the tech team instituted multi-factor authentication (MFA) for individuals creating new logins for our website/Confluence sites. MFA was rolled out for all individuals with logins on November 21, 2024. This is a critical step in ensuring the security of your data.
- New Listserv Manager – Our tech team is launching the new listserv manager. Our old listserve is out of date and longer supported by the vendor, making this a critical project for our organization. Eric and his team have taken the necessary time to test the new listserv fully and will be conducting a pilot to ensure that it is functioning correctly and as expected when launched across all of the organization’s listservs.
- Education Initiatives – HL7’s Director of Education, Sadhana Alangar, worked closely with the Education Advisory Council and FHIR Community Manager, Daniel Bach, to develop and offer free educational sessions at the WGMs. Focus groups were also conducted at the September WGM to consider feedback from our members to decide on 2025 educational offerings. Also in 2024, the education department Introduced two new credentials: HL7 FHIR Foundational Implementer Exam and the HL7 FHIR Advanced Developer Exam.
