HL7
Health Level Seven. The foundational family of healthcare data exchange standards that predates FHIR.
Why It Matters
FHIR is the modern, API-first evolution of HL7. Many legacy federal health systems still run on HL7 v2.x messaging, which uses pipe-delimited text messages to exchange patient data. Understanding HL7 v2 is still essential because you will encounter it in every brownfield integration. The standards body HL7 International also maintains FHIR.
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