HL7 Developing New Health Care Messaging Standard

A new HL7 standard, called Fast Health Interoperable Resources (FHIR), could allow clinical research organizations to extract data from patients' records.

Health Level Seven International, a standards body for health care data, is developing a new framework that will ease sharing of patients' electronic health records.

The standard, Fast Health Interoperable Resources (FHIR), consists of modular components called "resources" that allow health IT systems to read extensions using a common framework. They're used by "back-office" software, social media apps on mobile phones, cloud software, EHR data sharing and server communications, according to an HL7 document.

"These resources can easily be assembled into working systems that solve real world clinical and administrative problems at a fraction of the price of existing alternatives," HL7 stated.