About Us

HL7 UK is the UK affiliate organisation to HL7, and was set up in January 2000. 
The mission of HL7 UK is entirely complementary with that of the parent HL7 organisation:

To support the development, promotion and implementation of HL7 standards in ways which meet the needs of healthcare organisations, health professionals and healthcare software suppliers in the United Kingdom

HL7 UK National Involvement:

HL7 UK was set up to meet the needs of the United Kingdom as a whole and to provide a forum for the needs of the entire UK. As such, it provides a single contact point for all HL7 related issues, both v2 and v3, in the UK.

Much of the current focus has been on the English national initiative 'NHS Connecting for Health' which adopted HL7 v3 as its messaging standard. However, the other realms within the UK have their messaging needs too.

Recently, HL7 UK has had meetings with both the Welsh and the Scots with a view to gaining a greater understanding of their needs and the way in which HL7 UK can assist in the fulfilment of these needs.

HL7 UK welcomes involvement from all corners of the UK and, where local or national initiatives require the use of HL7, HL7 UK is the logical focus for assistance and expertise in this area.

HL7 UK holds regular technical meetings where many issues, including implementation and extending the standard, are discussed. Where there is an identified need for specific issues to be discussed, this forum can provide the focus and the environment to resolve and address these issues.

Current initiatives include the development of a version 3 UK profile (V3GB). This is targeted on ensuring compatibility of messages and structures within the whole of the UK whilst allowing freedom for local and alternative coding schemes.

HL7 UK sets out to:

• educate the UK healthcare community and healthcare information system developers about HL7 standards, and promote effective and consistent implementation of HL7 standards in the UK.
• identify and analyse UK healthcare business requirements for electronic communication of healthcare information.
• match UK national requirement with HL7 messages, and if necessary, identifying the need for UK specific messages, profiles and implementation guides.
• report to HL7 on any specific UK needs that are not met by existing HL7 standards.
• prototype and pilot with clinical and business validation.

HL7 UK provides:

• information about HL7 in a manner that is accessible and intelligible to a UK healthcare audience through: a web site containing relevant documents and links; tutorials and meetings; occasional papers and publications.
• education and training for: systems developers; healthcare organisations; healthcare professionals; those concerned with compliance requirements and conformance certification.
• encouragement for subgroups concerned with UK interests in specific aspects of HL7 standards.

HL7 UK is a voluntary association of interested parties drawn from the supplier, user, provider and technical expert members of the UK healthcare community. It conducts its business according to the requirements of its affiliation agreement with HL7 and the aims expressed in its mission statement. Day-to-day management of HL7-UK is carried out through a Management Board, drawn by election from the membership. Technical subcommittees of the main group address matters of specific interest in relation to Version 2 implementation and Version 3 development. The whole HL7 UK community, at meetings held four times a year, takes decisions on matters relating to the UK interest. Decision-making is by consensus-forming in the first place, but ultimately by ballot based on American National Standards Institute (ANSI) rules. HL7 UK also collaborates with other developers of healthcare and information technology standards to optimise progress through sharing of skills and knowledge.

HL7 UK seeks to identify HL7 standards that are applicable to UK healthcare without change and those that require adaptations or national implementation guidelines to meet UK requirements. Where UK adaptations, profiles or guidelines are required, HL7 UK proposes solutions that meet the need for consistent national implementation, while avoiding unnecessary divergence from HL7 standards. To this end, HL7 UK feeds back national requirements and proposed solutions to its parent body.

Last modified 20/09/07