nhit coordinator david brailer invited keynote ... - hl7

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HL7’s 18th Annual Plenary Meeting will convene on Monday,September 27, 2004 bearing the theme: HL7 Version 3 — It’sLive, It’s Real. Recently appointed National Coordinator forHealth Information Technology David J. Brailer, M.D., Ph.D. ofthe U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) hasbeen invited to give the keynote address on the critical role ofstandards in the National Health Information Infrastructure(NHII) and Electronic Health Records (EHR).

On July 21 at the Healthcare Information Technology (HIT)Summit in Washington D.C., Brailer unveiled a strategic frame-work to establish a national health information infrastructure(NHII) that envisions having electronic health records avail-able for most Americans within 10 years. HL7 standards areintegral to the interoperability needed to support the fourgoals identified in Brailer’s report: informing clinical prac-tice, interconnecting clinicians, personalizing care and

improving population health.

The Plenary meeting will be the featured event atHL7’s September Working Group Meeting, which

will be held in Atlanta, Georgia fromSeptember 26 to October 1. The Plenary

meeting will convene at 8:30 a.m. andend at 12:30 p.m. and will include

the HL7 State of the UnionAddress, Brailer’s keynote

NHIT Coordinator David Brailer Invited KeynoteSpeaker at HL7’s September Plenary Meeting

In This Issue...

AUGUST 2004

A large turnout is expected once again to attend this year’s HL7Plenary Meeting, which will convene on Monday, September 27,2004 in Atlanta, Georgia.

ORC Update........................................ 2

HL7 18th Annual PlenaryMeeting............................................. 2

Letter to HL7 MemberOrganizations................................ 3

HL7 Exhibit at HIMSS 2005.. 4-5

Update from Headquarters 6-7

EHR Reconciliation...................... 8

PIC and ORC Overview............... 9

August Educational Summit...... 9

HL7 2004Benefactors................................... 10

New CCOW Work Items.................. 10

HL7 and CDISC RenewAgreement...................................... 11

V3 Specifications Receive ANSI Approval.............................. 12

Packaging HL7 Version 3......... 13

WARTs in V3 Specifications..... 14

INTERNATIONAL NEWS.......15-18

HL7 International Affairs........ 15

Going Dutch with HL7............... 16

International AffiliateContacts.......................................... 16

Joint International CDAConference & Affiliate Meeting in Mexico...................... 17

International Committee: Co-Chairs and Charter................. 17

France Petitions for Affiliate Office.............................. 17

Mexico EHR Status.................... 18

Roles of the ToolingCommittee...................................... 19

Co-chair elections....................... 19

Certification Exam Congrats 19

Alpha release of the Java API to V3 RIM......................... 20-21

Upcoming Meetings.................... 22

PIC’s Ballot Task Force............ 23

Board approves PHER............. 23

2004 OrganizationalMembers................................... 24-26

TC and SIG Co-Chairs.......... 27-29

HL7 Facilitators.......................... 30

2004 Board of Directors.......... 31

Atlanta Meeting........................... 32

address and a Panel Discussion moderated by HL7 BoardMember George “Woody” Beeler, Jr., Ph.D. See the completePlenary meeting agenda on page 2.

Registration for the 18th Annual Plenary and Working GroupMeeting is available online at www.HL7.org. Early Bird regis-tration ends August 25, while online registration endsSeptember 10, after which point registration is availableonsite only.

The Organizational Review Committee(ORC) provided an update at the SanAntonio meeting to the TechnicalSteering Committee and the Board ofDirectors on the progress made to date.The ORC has taken the many issues that have been raised,organized them, and performed a root cause analysis tounderstand what lead to these issues. These root causeswere organized as follows:

■ Business Value/ROI■ V3 Content - Completeness■ V3 Content - Semantic Interoperability■ Methodology (Holes, Tools)■ Process Maturity■ Balloting■ HL7 Business Model■ Internationalization■ Resources■ HL7 Education (Intra and External)

Upon completing the root cause analysis, the ORC is nowembarking on identifying and evaluating various alternatesolutions to address these causes. The objective is to havean initial set of potential solutions with an impact ratingavailable for the Board Retreat the end of July, 2004. Basedon the feedback and discussion we will then start to focuson refining and developing the most promising solutionsfor further review by the Atlanta meeting in September,2004.

While we are facing significant challenges and identifyingopportunities for addressing these challenges, we must notforget how much progress we have already made and con-tinue to make as an organization in the areas of V3,process, and organizational optimization. Some of theideas that were raised early on in the process are alreadybeing "prototyped" while at the same time many are con-stantly attempting to find ways to do things better withinindividual committees.

Throughout the process we value the input from our mem-bership. Nothing we'll propose will work without yourbuy-in and belief that the changes will be for the better.The documentation that keeps track of our progress,thoughts, and ideas was forwarded to the TSC to enableco-chairs to review and discuss with their committees asthey see fit and provide feedback to the ORC. The docu-mentation is available on the ORC web page to all mem-bers and feedback is welcomed [email protected].

We are looking forward to reviewing various recommenda-tions with you in the near future.

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AUGUST 2004 HEALTH LEVEL SEVEN, INC.

ORC UpdateBy Hans Buitendijk, HL7 Board of Directors; Co-Chair, Organizational Review Committee;

Co-Chair, Orders and Observations

Hans Buitendijk

HL7 18th Annual Plenary Meeting

September 27, 2004, Atlanta

Theme: HL7 Version 3: It’s Live, It’s Real

8:30 - 8:35 a.m.Welcome and Announcements Mark McDougall, HL7 Executive Director

8:35 - 9:15 a.m. State of the Union Address Mark Shafarman, Chair, HL7 Board of DirectorsKai Heitmann, International Representative to the HL7 Board

9:15 - 10:00 a.m.Keynote Address:Critical Role of Standards in the NHII and the EHR Invited Speaker: David J. Brailer, MD, PhD, National Health Information Technology Coordinator, U.S. Department of Health and HumanServices (HHS).

10:00 - 10:30 a.m. Break

10:30 - 12:30 Panel Discussion: A Standard Whose Time Has Come -Version 3Moderator: George “Woody” Beeler, Jr., Ph.D.

Panelists: from CDC, UK’s NHS, HL7 Canada, HL7 Mexicoand John Quinn to speak on the market of V3

10:30-10.45Introduction of topic and the panelists: Woody Beeler

Panelists:John Quinn will speak on the market for V3Diana Perez, HL7 MexicoDr. Tim Jones, HL7 UKMr. Alain LaRochelle, Vice-President, BCE EmergisDan Pollock, M.D., CDCPeter Kovitz, NIH’s National Cancer Institute

12:15-12:30Question & Answer

As you may know, Health LevelSeven (HL7) has scheduled a fullworking group meeting inNoordwijkerhout, the Netherlands(only about 30 miles fromAmsterdam's Schipol InternationalAirport) from May 1-6, 2005. I wishto encourage your organization tosupport your HL7-participatingemployees in attending this veryimportant international meeting.

First and foremost, the HL7Netherlands meeting will be anormal working group meetingconsisting of our full complementof technical committees and spe-cial interest groups. As such, theHL7 SIGs and TCs will move for-ward with important work ontheir respective initiatives, just asat any working group meeting inthe US. It is important for HL7,therefore, to have present a strongnumber of our core US partici-pants to continue to guide thestandards development process ofwhich you are a stakeholder.

HL7's Version 3 standard, in partic-ular, is relevant here. Continuityin the development of HL7 V3 isof the utmost importance, so thekey people driving the develop-ment process are greatly neededat every HL7 working group meet-ing. In addition, the timing of thismeeting in relation to the pendingrollout of V3 makes it a criticaljuncture for US companies thatsupport this very important HL7standard.

There is a clear and mutualdependency between HL7 Version3 and American health IT. HL7Version 3 would not exist without

the investment from Americanstakeholders, and it promises toreturn those investments by pro-viding an excellent standard foruse worldwide. At the same time,HL7 Version 3 has benefited great-ly from the contributions of ourInternational Affiliates, which havebeen critical to making this a trulyglobal standard.

Further, a strong US showing for aworking group meeting in Europewill clearly demonstrate that HL7is not just a US standards organi-zation, but that it is truly global.This meeting is also an excellentopportunity to gather informationand exchange ideas with an evenlarger number of internationalstakeholders. And the meetingwill be held entirely in English, soall US members’ needs will besupported with no language barrier.

It is also notable that the cost ofsending a representative to theHL7 Netherlands meeting is verycomparable, and often times lesscostly than some domestic busi-ness trips, if planned in advance.Given that the Netherlands meet-ing isn't until May 2005, there isample time to realize cost-effectivearrangements for your participat-ing representatives.

Finally, the HL7 Netherlandsworking group meeting is an idealopportunity for US companies thatplan to implement a V3 programto learn more about the results ofthe early adopters projects that arecurrently taking place in countriesoutside the US.

Check our website, www.HL7.org,

for moredetails as themeetingdraws closer.I hope thatyou will showyour supportfor HL7 in this groundbreakingand very exciting internationalopportunity by underwriting theparticipation of your key HL7-active employees at HL7’s May2005 Working Group Meeting inthe Netherlands.

Sincere regards,

Mark Shafarman, HL7 Chair

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HEALTH LEVEL SEVEN, INC. AUGUST 2004

HL7 newsis the official publication of:

Health Level Seven, Inc.3300 Washtenaw Avenue, Suite 227

Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4261Phone: (734) 677-7777Fax: (734) 677-6622

WWW.HL7.ORG

Mark D. McDougallPublisher

Jonathan HimlinManaging Editor

Karen Van HentenryckTechnical Editor

Letter from the Chairto HL7 Member Organizations

Mark Shafarman

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HL7 Exhibit Will Once Again Take CenterStage at HIMSS 2005;

Call for Participation Released

Health Level Seven’s 2005 HIMSSExhibit will once again take centerstage at the HIMSS AnnualConference & Exhibition, February13-17, 2005 in Dallas, Texas. HL7 isproud to present its HIMSS exhibit ina prime position on the main aislenear the center of the exhibit hall(see accompanying map). This front-and-center location will provide out-standing exposure for all the HL7member organizations that participatein the exhibit, and promises to be astellar platform from which todemonstrate the importance of HL7standards in the future of healthcareinteroperability.

The theme for the HL7 exhibit is:Interoperability for the 21st

Century Healthcare System. Tosupport HL7’s move beyond interop-erability standards (e.g. HL7’s EHRFunctional Model) and its support ofcritical initiatives in healthcare, the2005 HIMSS exhibit will feature multi-ple, smaller demonstrations that illus-trate how HL7 standards provide thebuilding blocks for the NationalHealth Information Infrastructure(NHII), the 21st Century HealthcareSystem.

HIMSS is the largest general, health ITtradeshow in the country. More than600 vendors are expected to partici-pate in the 2005 exhibition, and hun-dreds of educational sessions will beoffered on and off the floor. The2005 HL7 exhibit will measure 40 feet

x 50 feet and will feature one theaterarea focusing on HL7 educationalpresentations, a second theater areafeaturing presentations by the demoparticipating firms, and several podsof demonstration workstations.

A Pivotal Year in Healthcare IT2004 is proving to be a pivotal yearin healthcare information technologyinitiatives, and HL7 is providing manyof the key interoperability standards.HIMSS 2005 will provide an opportu-nity to present our latest interoper-ability standards to support theFramework for Strategic Action justannounced by Dr. David Brailer, theNational Coordinator for HealthInformation Technology.

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HL7 standards are integral to theinteroperability needed to support thefour goals identified in Brailer’sreport: informing clinical practice,interconnecting clinicians, personaliz-ing care and improving populationhealth. HL7 standards for EHR sys-tems, e-prescribing, clinical reportsand documents, clinical trials andpopulation surveillance, all within thecontext of the national infrastructures,are the building blocks for the 21stCentury healthcare system in theUnited States and around the world.

A Call for ParticipationIn late July, HL7 released its officialCall for Participation and ExhibitorApplication for HL7's 2005 HIMSSexhibit. All HL7 member organiza-tions are invited to participate withHL7 and our partnering standardsdevelopers in showcasing their strate-gy for the key initiatives identifiedabove.

HL7’s presence at HIMSS 2005 willfeature multiple opportunities fororganizational member participationincluding e-prescribing, ElectronicHealth Records (EHR), and other criti-cal HL7 standards. For organizationalmembers who do not wish to bringan application to the HL7 exhibit butwho wish to support HL7’s presenceat HIMSS and gain the appropriaterecognition, HL7 will once again offersponsorship opportunities.

New Opportunities for 2005Each vendor who participates in thisyear’s HL7 demonstration at HIMSS2005 will be given a 20-minute timeslot in the theater to discuss their HL7strategy. The focus of these presenta-tions will be their current andplanned use of HL7 standards to sup-port the NHII Strategic Framework,EHR, e-prescribing and other interna-tional initiatives.

Vendors who participate independent-ly (those who aren’t demonstratinginteroperability with another vendoron site) must include in their theaterpresentation a customer/client whohas the specified product live in aproduction environment. The presen-tation must emphasize the use of HL7to exchange information between thevarious homogeneous and heteroge-neous applications/systems compris-ing the healthcare enterprise.

Partner OrganizationsHL7 will also invite strategic partnerorganizations including NCPDP,SNOMED, CDC, AHIMA, NHS, VA,FDA, and the National Library ofMedicine among others to provide 20to 30 minute theater presentations onthe stage at the HL7 exhibit, and pos-sibly occupy a workstation on theexhibit floor, based on availability.

Collaboration with IHEHL7 is proud to once again collabo-rate with Integrating the HealthcareEnterprise (IHE) at HIMSS 2005,though this year the two organiza-tions will do so from separateexhibits.

Collaboration between the HL7Interoperability for the 21st CenturyHealthcare System exhibit and theIHE/HIMSS interoperability demos(The Cross-Enterprise Showcase andthe Ambulatory IT Showcase) willinclude: 1) the exchange of theatertime in each demo; 2) theexchange of collateral distri-bution in each demo; 3) co-branding in the form of sig-nage in each demo; 4)demonstrations of vendorconnectivity/interoperabilitybetween both demos; and 5)discounted participation feesas an incentive for vendors toparticipate in both exhibits.

More InformationInterested parties should go towww.HL7.org and use the HL7 HIMSS2005 Call for Participation link at thetop of the homepage to access moreinformation, including details aboutthe benefits of participation in theexhibit, as well as guidelines for par-ticipating vendors, sponsorship infor-mation, fees, milestone dates, logisticsand an exhibit application.

All applications should be forwardedto HL7 Director of CommunicationsJonathan Himlin at: [email protected] faxed to HL7 Headquarters at: 734-677-6622. We look forward to yourparticipation in the HL7 HIMSS 2005Exhibit.

Questions should be directed to:HL7 HeadquartersKaren VanHentenryck 734/677-7777 [email protected]

Jonathan Himlin734/677-7777 [email protected]

Project Manager Chuck Meyer 407/695-8338 [email protected]

The HL7 Advisory Committeehas been formed. The committee iscomprised of the following individuals:

Janet Marchibroda (eHI)Gary Christopherson Dr. Tim Jones (UK)Martin Harris (Cleveland Clinic)Carl Dvorak (Epic Systems)Ian Ferrier (Montrose Group)

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HL7’s recent working group meeting inSan Antonio was highly successful.Highlights from the meeting are providedbelow.

Decisions from the TSCMeetingThe Technical Steering Committee madetwo notable recommendations during itsusual Monday evening meeting. The firstwas to recommend the formation of thePublic Health Emergency Response(PHER) Special Interest Group. This SIG,led by interim co-chairs Rita Altmore(Washing State Department of Health) JimCase (American Association of VeterinaryLab Diagnosticians) and Dan Pollock(Centers for Disease Control andPrevention) will focus its efforts on devel-opment, balloting, and maintaining agrowing number of Version 2 and Version3 messages for public healthand emergency preparedness.Please see the PHER page of thewebsite for a complete discus-sion of the mission and charterof this newly-formed SIG.http://www.hl7.org/Special/committees/pher/index.cfm.

The other notable decision ofthe TSC was to advance theElectronic Health Records (EHR)Special Interest Group to a tech-nical committee. The EHRgroup recently successfully bal-loted its EHR Functional Modeland Standards and will be sub-mitting them to ANSI for a two-year period as Draft Standardsfor Trial Use (DSTU).

Decisions from the BoardMeetingThe HL7 Board of Directors met onTuesday evening. In addition to approvingthe recommendations from the TechnicalSteering Committee, the Board approved aMemorandum of Understanding (MOU)between HL7 and ASTM that calls for har-monizing the Continuity of Care Record(CCR) data element definitions and themethods for representing instances of thesedefinitions in XML. Also included in theMOU is the development of a commondata dictionary for the HL7 EHR FunctionalModel and Standards and the CCR. Theagreement has not yet been signed but thestandards organizations are proceedingwith their harmonization efforts. Alsoapproved by the Board was the formation

of a similar MOU with the AmericanDental Association (ADA). This agreementwill focus on areas of Periodontal Outreachthrough the HL7 Attachments SIG andother appropriate areas of harmonization.The Board also announced plans to estab-lish an Outreach Committee for ClinicalResearch (OCCR). Chaired by Chuck Jaffe,this outreach committee has been appoint-ed by the HL7 Board of Directors to advisethe Board on various areas of clinicalresearch that are currently under represent-ed within HL7. HL7 is also in the finalediting stages of an updated and revisedassociate charter agreement with theClinical Data Interchange Consortium(CDISC), a non-profit organization thatfocuses on standards requirements formedical and biopharmaceutical productdevelopment.

Thankingour WorkingGroupMeetingSponsorsConvening aworking groupmeeting for 500people is veryexpensive and weare fortunate to have a number of organi-zations that generously helped us defraysome of the meeting costs by sponsoringevents or collateral related to our meeting.The following companies were sponsorsof the recent HL7 Working Group Meetingin San Antonio and their contributionswere aptly recognized during theWednesday morning general session. • Siemens, Joan Miller – Thank you to

Siemens for sponsoring our OnsiteMeeting Guide.

• LINK Medical - Thank you to LINKMedical for sponsoring the continentalbreakfast all week.

• MISYS, Shirley Garcia – Thank youto MISYS for sponsoring our morningcoffee break and the afternoon cookiebreaks all week.

The MnM Facilitators Roundtable onThursday night was sponsored by WoodyBeeler, Beeler Consulting, Ted Klein,Klein Consulting, Inc, and Abdul-MalikShakir, Shakir Consulting.

Again, many thanks to these organizationsand members for their sponsorship.

Update from HeadquartersBy Karen Van Hentenryck, Associate Executive Director, Health Level Seven, Inc.

Karen Van Hentenryck

HL7 Board Chair Mark Shafarman smiles with JoanMiller (Siemens) and Shirley Garcia (MISYS), whoboth accepted sponsor plaques in San Antonio.

Rob Seliger (left) of Sentillion, Mike Henderson (center) on behalf of Interfaceware Corp.,and Woody Beeler, Jr., Ph.D. (right) of Beeler Consulting accepted HL7 supporter recogni-tion awards at the San Antonio working group meeting.

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Recognition of SupporterMembersThe HL7 Supporter members were alsorecognized during the Wednesday morn-ing general session. Supporter membersare typically smaller organizational mem-bers of HL7 who likely can’t afford thebenefactor dues but have opted to paytwice their dues amount to advance thework of HL7. The companies with sup-porter memberships and those individualswho came forward to receive the recogni-tion on behalf of that company are notedbelow:• Beeler Consulting, Woody Beeler• INTERFACEWARE, Mike Henderson• J&J PRD, unfortunately no representa-

tive from J&J could be in attendance • Link Medical, unfortunately, no repre-

sentative from Link Medical could be inattendance

• Sentillion, Rob Seliger

Recognition of BenefactorsA Benefactor is the highest level of mem-bership. HL7 is extremely fortunate tohave 27 organizations that pay member-ship fees above and beyond the normalorganizational member fees to help finan-cially support the goals of our organiza-tion. The organizations holdingBenefactor membership for 2004 and theindividuals who came forward to acceptthe benefactor plaques are noted below:

• Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc – Todd Kelly• Cap Gemini Ernst & Young – John

Quinn• Documentum – New Benefactor 6/04• Eclipsys Corporation – Roger Corman• Eli Lilly and Company – Linda Quade• Food and Drug Administration –

Randy Levin

• GE Medical Systems – InformationTechnologies – Charlies Parisot

• Guidant Corporation – No one inattendance

• HIMS Solutions, Inc. – No on in atten-dance

• IBM – Jill Kaufman• IDX System Corporation – Doug Castle• InterSystems Corporation – New

Benefactor 7/04• Kaiser Permanente – Joann Larson• McKesson Information Solutions –

Austin Kreisler• Microsoft Corporation – Roberto

Ruggeri• Misys Healthcare Systems – Shirley

Garcia• NHS National Programme for IT –

Laura Sato• Oracle Corporation – Charlie Mead• Partners HealthCare System, Inc. –

Perry Mar• Pfizer, Inc. – William Rosen• Philips Medical Systems – No one in

attendance • Quest Diagnostics, Inc. – No one in

attendance • SAIC – Science Applications

Information Corp – No one in atten-dance

• Siemens Medical Solutions HealthServices – Joan Miller

• US Department of Defense, MilitaryHealth System – New Benefactor 6/04

• US Department of Veterans Affairs –No one in attendance

• Wyeth Pharmaceuticals – KristoferSpahr

Board of Directors ElectionsEach summer, HL7 holds nominations andelections for its Board of Directors. Thenominations period opened May 24 andclosed on July 22. Elections will be openfrom August 9 – September 8, and theelection results will be announced onSeptember 29 at the HL7 Annual BusinessMeeting.

The positions currently up for electionare:• Chair Elect• Secretary

(currently held by Chuck Meyer)• Four Directors at Large positions

(currently held by Hans Buitendijk,Dan Jernigan, Ted Klein and Abdul-Malik Shakir)

HL7 Education Summit InArlington, VAHL7’s next Education Summit will con-vene August 17-18 in Arlington,VA. Thesummits are ideal in that they focus oneducation without the committee meet-ings and other activities that can take timeaway from the educational experience atthe regular working group meetings.Online registration for the AugustEducation Summit ends August 10. Afterthat date, participants may still register onsite on August 17-18. Visithttp://www.hl7.org/education/index.cfmfor more information about ourEducational Summits.

HL7’s 18th Annual Plenary andWorking Group MeetingHL7’s 18th Annual Plenary and WorkingGroup Meeting convenes September 26-October 1 in Atlanta, GA. The half-dayPlenary session, which convenes onMonday, September 27, is themed “HL7Version 3: It’s Live, It’s Real” and will fea-ture a keynote by invited guest Dr. DavidBrailer, National Health InformationTechnology Coordinator. Presentations byaffiliates in the United Kingdom, Mexico,and Canada as well as a presentationfrom the Centers for Disease Control andPrevention will highlight how these earlyimplementer organizations have con-tributed to the success of Version 3.Please plan on joining us for this celebra-tion of Version 3.

The HL7 Headquarters staff wishes you anenjoyable and pleasurable summer andlooks forward to seeing you September.

Representatives from HL7’s 2004 Benefactors shared a proud moment, accepting recogni-tion plaques at the Wednesday morning general session in San Antonio.

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HL7’s Board of Directors has unanimously approved theElectronic Health Record System Functional Model(EHR-S) to move forward as a Draft Standard for TrialUse (DSTU). The EHR Draft Standard can now beregistered with ANSI, beginning its trial period of up to24 months.

The announcement was made shortly after NationalCoordinator for Health Information Technology, U.S.Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)David J. Brailer, M.D., Ph.D. unveiled a strategic frame-work to establish a national health information infra-structure (NHII) with a goal of having electronic healthrecords available for most Americans within 10 years.The strategic framework was released at SecretaryThompson’s Summit on healthcare IT in Washington D.C.in July. An EHR standard is seen as one of the keys tosupporting the exchange of information for clinical deci-sions and treatments, and can help lay the groundwork fornationwide interoperability by providing common languageparameters that can be used in developing systems thatsupport electronic records.

“We hope that the HL7 EHR DSTU will assist the industry'sresponse to the goals set forth by Dr. Brailer in his strate-gic framework at the Summit,” said Mark Shafarman, HL7’sChair. Shafarman noted that the development of the EHRDSTU was made possible through the efforts of hundredsof dedicated individuals spanning the healthcare industryand crossing international lines. He pointed out also thatthe organization reached out to the provider communitythrough the EHR Collaborative, a group of seven organiza-tions representing key stakeholders in healthcare.

“HL7 looks forward to continuing to meet the needs forstandards that support the interoperability of healthcareinformation,” Shafarman said.

Negative Comments ResolvedAt the end of April 2004 the EHR-S DSTU won approval inan industry-wide HL7 ballot that featured a record numberof votes from stakeholders. A reconciliation period immedi-ately ensued during which time the HL7 EHR TechnicalCommittee was able to resolve many of the issues with vot-ers who placed negative votes, causing them to withdrawtheir negative ballots and, in many cases, change their voteto affirmative.

The EHR-S DSTU consists of four distinct sections, whichwere each balloted independently.

Here are the official ballot results as of July 23, 2004:

Section Aff. Neg. No Pool Affirmative Return Total Percentage

EHR-S Functional Overview 200 22 63 294 90.09%

Direct Care 191 39 63 297 83.04%

Supportive 189 38 65 297 83.25%

Information Infrastructure 173 50 66 294 77.57%

The quorum for each section above ranged from 77.6% to78.8%, well exceeding the 60% quorum required for a bal-lot. Each section was then required to meet a two-thirdsaffirmative ballot in order to pass. Some reconciliationcontinues and negative votes may still be retracted orchanged to affirmative. For more information on the EHR-S DSTU, visit www.HL7.org/ehr.

HL7 Board of Directors Unanimously Approves EHR for DraftStandard Status; New EHRBallot Numbers Released asReconciliation Continues

A “Thank You” sent from Dr. JorgeFerrer of the US Department of

Health and Human Services

“Congratulations to all of you for your leadership

in the EHR DSTU. The international collaboration

has been remarkable and we are very grateful for

the seeds that this effort has planted.”

Gracias,

Jorge

The Electronic Health Record Technical Committee poses in tight quar-ters during the working group meeting in San Antonio in early May 2004.

PIC and ORC Overview – What’s the Difference?Members of the Process ImprovementCommittee (PIC) and theOrganizational Review Committee(ORC) have at one point or anotherbeen questioned on the overlap anddifferences between these two Boardappointed Committees. This docu-ment will attempt to answer thosequestions and shed light on the rela-tionship between PIC and ORC.

Compare and ContrastA few of the main differencesbetween PIC and ORC stem fromtheir scope. PIC is focusing onresolving process issues to ensurethat everyone can meet theirdemands from the standards develop-ment work at HL7. PIC work itemsinclude the Committee DecisionMaking Practices Document, BallotSpreadsheets and suggesting additionsto the Bylaws and Policies andProcedures. The ORC has the largerscope of looking at all issues affectingthe organizational structure of HL7,limited bandwidth of volunteers, HL7business model, V3 semantic interop-erability etc. The overlap betweenthese two Committees mainly stemsfrom the fact that anyone can notifythem of an issue or concern, andboth Committees will add it to their‘rack and stack’ of known issues.

The PIC issue-tracking list was sharedwith ORC as there were issues thatwent beyond the scope of PIC, andvice versa ORC has assigned someissues to PIC because they relate toprocess improvements. ORC and PICenjoy a close working relationshipand believe that they have compli-mentary roles. In fact, several mem-bers participate in both Committees.In summary, ORC is focused onstrategic issues while PIC is focusedon operational issues.

PIC Mandate:The Process Improvement Committeewill serve as the focal point withinHL7 to identify, collect, track, andresolve issues pertaining to organiza-tional process and improvement. The

committee will serve as an openvenue allowing HL7 members tovoice ideas pertaining to improve-ment opportunities for the organiza-tion, thus serving as the HL7“Organizational Steward” for issuespertaining to process improvement.

The Process Improvement Committeewill maintain primary responsibility toduly consider issues raised in anopen, public forum, to mature thoseideas into formal, actionable propos-als, and to host and champion thoseproposals to the HL7 TechnicalSteering Committee and/or the HL7Board of Directors, as appropriate.

ORC Mandate:The Organizational ReviewCommittee is a board-initiated com-mittee created during the San DiegoWorking Group meeting, 2004 to:• Analyze a myriad of issues that

have been raised in recent pastthat impact the effectiveness andefficiency of the organization as awhole to develop standards, V3 inparticular; and

• Provide recommendations to theBoard how to address these issuesthrough specific process and/ororganizational enhancements.

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HL7’s August Educational Summitin Arlington, Virginia;

Wide Range of Tutorials, HL7Certification Testing Offered

HL7 will hold its next HL7 educa-tional summit August 17-18, 2004in Arlington, VA. The summit willtake place at the Hyatt RegencyCrystal City hotel at ReaganNational Airport and will offer avariety of informative tutorials onkey HL7 topics, as well as theopportunity for exclusive HL7 cer-tification testing.

HL7 certification is a designationfast becoming a requirement intoday’s competitive healthcaremarket. HL7 is the sole source forHL7 certification testing. The first25 two-day registrants will receivea full refund of their certificationtest fees ($100 for members and$150 for non-members).

The HL7 Educational Summit is aconcentrated, two-day series oftutorials focused on topics specificto HL7— such as Version 2 andVersion 3 implementation — aswell as general interest industrytopics like EHR, XML and HIPAA.

They combine the country’s mostpopular convention locations witha high-quality, educational itinerarythat provides students with expertHL7 training straight from thesource. Each of the summit’sinstructors has been hand selectedand is not only an HL7 expert, buthas actively participated in devel-oping the HL7 standards.

Online and mail-in registration isavailable until August 10, afterwhich time registrations will belimited to on-site only. Visitwww.HL7.org to register. Singleand two-day rates for the summitare available for both HL7 mem-bers and non-members. The sin-gle-day member rate is $895, whilenon-members pay $1,195 per day.The two-day rate is $1,195 formembers and $1,495 for non-mem-bers. For more information,please contact the HL7 RegistrationCenter at: (734) 677-3126, or sendan email to: [email protected].

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New CCOW Work ItemsBy Robert Seliger, CCOW Co-Chair

At the May CCOW meeting, the com-mittee identified several new workitems to pursue in 2004 and beyond.These new work items come hot onthe heels of the successful unanimousfull membership ballot of CCOWV1.5. With this major task completed,CCOW has now set its sites on newendeavors.

One of the work items that will bepursued is the creation of a best-prac-tices guide for developers of CCOW-compliant applications. With manyCCOW-based applications now avail-able, the CCOW community hasgained a fair amount of experience interms of do’s and don’ts relative tohow to apply the standard. Like most

standards, CCOW also has some con-tent that allows implementer’s certaindegrees of freedom. However, not allways of exercising these freedomswork as well. The best practicesguide will provide an non-normativedescription of key recommendationsthat will help to ensure that applica-tions are not only CCOW-compliant,but that work extremely well togetheras “good citizens” of the healthcareenterprise. Another work item that will be pur-sued is the incorporation of HL7 V3data types into the CCOW standard.While the amount of data communi-cated between CCOW-compliantapplications is minimal (e.g., a patientidentifier), wherever data exchange

does occur CCOWhas leveraged theHL7 V2.x specifica-tions. With the V3data types now offi-cial, the time hascome to include theseas part of HL7. This initiative will beundertaken not only with an eye tothe future of HL7, but also with sensi-tivity towards backwards compatibilityfor existing CCOW-compliant applica-tions. In order to make sure that theCCOW committee is fluent in HL7 V3topics, the committee’s Septembermeeting schedule has been arrangedto enable members to attend severalof the HL7 V3 training classes.

Finally, another major candidate workitem is collaboration withMedBiquitous, a new ANSI-certifiedstandards organization that has anassociate charter agreement with HL7.The mission of MedBiquitous is todevelop standards for e-learning inhealthcare, and they see a very inter-esting role for CCOW as a means tobring e-learning applications into theclinical care environment. I attendedthe MedBiquitous plenary meeting theweek after the CCOW meeting, andwas pleased to see that the interest incollaboration extends into theMedBiquitous community. Potentialoutcomes of this collaboration are thedefinition of new CCOW subjects thatenable the integration of e-learningapplications with each other as wellas with clinical applications.

With six versions of CCOW now com-pleted, it is exciting to see that thereis still much to do to continue toextend CCOW in new and powerfulways.

Robert Seliger

HL7 2004 Benefactors

U.S. Department of Defense

Military Health System

Documentum

HL7 and CDISC Renew Charter Agreement,Strengthen Relationship

HL7 and The Clinical DataInterchange Standards Consortium(CDISC) have agreed to core pointsfor the renewal of an AssociateCharter Agreement that was originallysigned in March 2001. The newagreement includes reciprocal organi-zational memberships and reciprocaladvisory board positions in additionto educational and financial opportu-nities and benefits for joint membersof both organizations.

“The exchange of CDISC and HL7advisory board members highlightsthe importance and necessity of notonly the convergence of the standardsof these two organizations but alsothe activities of having CDISC stan-dards referenced in FDA's eCTDGuidance and accrediting clinicalresearch standards through a well-rec-ognized organization such as HL7,”said William Qubeck, associate direc-tor, electronic submissions data,Pfizer.

While HL7 is focused on standardsand interoperability for healthcaresystems, the focus of CDISC is onclinical research. The two organiza-tions have found that their activitiesare becoming increasingly comple-mentary.

“The healthcare industry has hun-dreds of specialties and as manyinformation stovepipes,” said WesRishel, past chair, HL7 Board and vicepresident, research area director,Gartner. “The mission of the HL7Reference Information Model (RIM) isto break the stove pipes down, or atleast make connecting them easy.CDISC brings an important industrysegment to the table. Continuing theaffiliation is vital to fulfilling our mis-sion.”

In January 2004, CDISC made a for-mal commitment to follow the HL7Development Framework (HDF).Charlie Mead, MD, a member of theHL7 Board of directors, and directorof information architecture at OracleCorporation, and Landen Bain, adirector on the CDISC Board and HL7marketing committee co-chair, areleading this effort. Ultimately, CDISCwill provide structured knowledgeand information exchange require-ments from its clinical researchdomain expertise. In turn, HL7 willdevelop ANSI-balloted specificationsbased upon the ReferenceInformation Model (RIM) and theVersion 3 methodology.

“The commitment of CDISC toachieve interoperability with the HL7standards is an important milestonefor the biopharmaceutical industry,”said Charles Jaffe, MD, PhD, director,medical informatics, AstraZeneca anda director on the CDISC Board. “Itreaffirms the efforts of the regulatedresearch community to become whol-ly integrated within the continuum ofhealthcare.”

Another goal of the renewed Charterwill be the formation of an OutreachCommittee for Clinical Research(OCCR). This committee, which willbe comprised of members from FDA,CDISC, HL7, NIH and other groupsinvolved in clinical research, will beappointed by the Board of HL7 tostrategically represent the domain ofclinical research within the context ofHL7.

“The agreement between HL7 andCDISC represents an effort by HL7 toreach out to important industry andscientific stakeholders,” said HL7Board Chair Mark Shafarman. “Thediscussions with CDISC led to the for-mation of HL7’s Outreach Committeefor Clinical Research, which will con-tinue this direction.”

Additional information on CDISC andthe CDISC open standards/models canbe found on the CDISC website athttp://www.cdisc.org.

HL7 Welcomes Four New Benefactors

Four new benefactors have recently been established for HL7, bringing the overall number to 27.

Documentum, Kaiser Permanente, InterSystems Corporation, and the U.S.Department of Defense Military Health System are the newest HL7

organizational members to become benefactors, HL7’s highest level ofmembership. Benefactors help to provide the support needed for HL7 to

continue developing its industry-critical standards and work products.

HL7 is proud to welcome these organizations as 2004 benefactors!

11


12


Several HL7 Version 3 (V3) SpecificationsReceive ANSI Approval;

HL7 Initiates V3 Early Adopters Program to Gain Valuable Feedback from Users

Several HL7 Version 3 (V3)Specifications have been approved bythe American National StandardsInstitute (ANSI), making them Americannational standards.

The following HL7 Version 3 standardshave already been approved by ANSI:• Scheduling, Release 1

This document defines the messagesand related elements designed tocommunicate various events relatedto the scheduling of appointments forservices and/or for the use ofresources and associated master files.

• Claims and Reimbursements,Release 1This document defines the messagesand corresponding elements pertain-ing to the invoicing (including author-ization and eligibility verification),adjudication and payment (includingadjustments and account queries) ofHealthcare Services and associatedmaster files.

• Reference Information Model(RIM), Release 1The RIM is the HL7 informationmodel from which all other informa-tion models and messages in the V3Standard are derived.

• Refinement, Constraint andLocalization to Version 3 Messages,Release 1This document describes the process-es whereby HL7 Version 3 messagespecifications may be refined, con-strained and extended to supportimplementation designs, conformanceprofiles, and realm-specific standards.It also details the rules that underliethe development of Version 3 mes-sages based on the RIM andVocabulary Domain.

• Shared Messages, Release 1This document provides data on com-mon messages such as acknowledge-ments shared across multipledomains.

• XML Implementation TechnologySpecification – Data Types, Release 1This document defines the V3 datatypes that will be used by all of HL7V3 and onwards. It also defines therepresentation of HL7 V3 data typesin XML, including the schema neces-sary to derive XML schemas for HL7V3 Hierarchical Message Descriptions(HMD).

• UML Implementation TechnologySpecification – Data Types, Release 1The UML Data Types specificationbinds the V3 data types to theUML/OCL kernel types to allow forformally correct OCL constrains onthe V3 data types, and to assist inimplementation of the V3 data types.

Awaiting ApprovalThe following Version 3 specificationshave passed HL7 ballot requirementsand are awaiting ANSI approval: DataTypes Abstract Specification, CommonMessage Element Types, XMLImplementation TechnologySpecification—Structures, and PeriodReporting of Clinical Trial LaboratoryData.

Version 3 Early AdoptersProgramIn support of Version 3, HL7 has initiat-ed a V3 Early Adopters Program to gainfrom users valuable feedback that mighthelp shape future releases of the stan-dards.

"The HL7 Early Adopters Program isessential to establishing a solid commu-nication path between the implementerswho are building implementations of thenew standards, and the HL7 TechnicalCommittees who created the standards,”said Woody Beeler, HL7 Board memberand co-chair of the Modeling andMethodology technical committee. “Itwill allow HL7 to both assist the imple-menters and to use their experience toimprove the standard."

An example of a V3 early adopter is theNational Health Service (NHS) NationalProgramme for IT (NPfIT), which isresponsible for major IT initiatives tosupport health care delivery in England.The NpfIT has chosen V3 as a basestandard for its national and regionalprojects.

About Version 3The Version 3 project represents a newapproach to clinical informationexchange. It is built from the groundup around a single object model, theHL7 RIM, and a rigorous UML-basedmethodology that ties model to mes-sages and finally to the message’sexpression in XML syntax.

The V3 specification is built around sub-ject domains, for each of which it pro-vides storyboard descriptions, triggerevents, interaction designs, domainobject models derived from the RIM,hierarchical message descriptors (HMDs)and a prose description of each ele-ment. Implementation of these domainsfurther depends upon a non-normativeV3 Guide and normative specificationsfor: data types; the XML implementabletechnical specifications (ITS) or messagewire format; message and control "wrap-pers;" and transport protocols.

HL7 anticipates that all outstanding coreVersion 3 specifications will be availablelater this year, and plans to release acomprehensive V3 package in the third-quarter of 2004, possibly in time for itsSeptember 26 – October 1 plenary meet-ing in Atlanta.

More information on all of the Version 3specifications can be found at:www.HL7.org/v3ballot/html/index.htm.

The Version 3 MessagingSpecifications are the first HL7 specifi-cations that are undergoing both con-tinuous development, and simultane-ous development of a number ofinterdependent domains. As a conse-quence, packaging the specificationfor release to end-users, developersand early adopters poses the chal-lenge of assembling a complete pack-age that recognizes the interdepend-ence of the specifications.

InterdependenceThe interdependence hierarchy forthe Version 3 messaging specificationshas three elements at its foundation:the Reference Information Model(RIM) specification, the Vocabularyspecifications that support the use ofthe Rim in developing messages, andthe Version 3 Data TypeSpecifications that type each attributeof the RIM.

These three elements are a baserequirement for defining messages,but there is a further interdependencewithin the messages themselves.Common Message Element Types(CMETs) are referenced for "inclusion"in most domain and infrastructuremessages. Thus, CMETs form the sec-ond level of dependency. The speci-fication of an interaction in Version 3anticipates that each domain "pay-load" will be wrapped by a ControlAct wrapper, which in turn will bewrapped by a Message transmissionwrapper. Thus, to be complete, adomain specification must have thewrappers and CMETs available fromthe specifications produced by othercommittees.

Finally, in order for implementationto proceed once the dependencies forthe message structures have beenmet, there is a further requirement for

an Implementation TechnologySpecification that tells how to imple-ment these specifications in someparticular technology such as XML.

Packaging Specifications as"Editions"As work on Version 3 has progressed,individual chapters have graduallyapproached the point at which all ofthe elements upon which theydepend have also become availableas final, normative specifications.Thus, it is possible, at this point, toaddress the assembly of implementa-tion packages that can be used byearly adopters, as well as by imple-menters of the complete standard.

Starting in the last quarter of 2004,HL7 will begin to publish "Editions"of the version three messaging speci-fications. The Editions will be pub-lished shortly before each Hl7Working Group Meeting, and will rep-resent the state of adoption of theVersion 3 specifications that resultedfrom reconciliation of balloted materi-al during the preceding WorkingGroup Meeting, and subsequentConference Calls. Thus, an Editionreleased at the end of December2004, will represent the status of eachballoted document as a result of rec-onciliation efforts during theSeptember 2004 Working GroupMeeting that was, in turn, addressingballot responses received during theAugust 2004 ballot.

"Normative" and"Implementation" EditionsHL7 will release two types ofEditions. "Normative Editions" will beissued annually, probably around thebeginning of the year. A NormativeEdition will contain only thosedomain specifications that haveachieved normative status, along with

all of the specifica-tions upon whichthose normativestandards aredependent. (Note that in the earlyNormative Editions, there may beselected elements within the depend-ency tree that are not themselves nor-mative.) As the name suggests,"Normative Editions" are the only edi-tions to which vendors will beexpected to conform, and as HL7develops normative conformancespecifications, it is these Editions towhich vendors and others will beable to demand and or claim confor-mance.

The other type of Edition is the"Implementation Edition." These willbe released three times a year, shortlybefore the beginning of each WorkingGroup Meeting. An ImplementationEdition will include all of the ele-ments that might go into a NormativeEdition, plus all documents that arecurrently undergoing review either asballoted or "draft" specifications. TheImplementation Editions provide sup-port for early adopters , and othersseeking to implement Version 3 speci-fications prior to their final release.

As may be obvious, the NormativeEdition each year will be released atthe same time as one of theImplementation Editions. The expec-tation is that the Normative Editionwill be a simple subset of the con-temporary Implementation Edition.Nevertheless, they will be packagedin two independent documentationsets.

Packaging HL7 Version 3 Messaging Specifications

By George “Woody” Beeler, Jr., Ph.D.; Chair, HL7 Modeling & Methodology TC; HL7 Board of Directors

“Woody” Beeler

13



14

WARTs in HL7 Version 3 SpecificationsBy George “Woody” Beeler, Jr., Ph.D.; Chair, HL7 Modeling & Methodology TC; HL7 Board of Directors

No, HL7 has not discovered a cure forwarts, nor has it commissioned a domainto communicate dermatologic examina-tion results using Version 3 specifica-tions. Rather, during the course of thepreceding Version 3 ballot cycles, anumber of concerns have been raised byreviewers that there are inconsistenciesand imperfections in V3 specificationsthat cannot be resolved by applyingeither methodology rules or existingstyle guides. Following a discussion ofsuch inconsistencies during the January2004 Working Group Meeting, theMethodology & Modeling Committee(M&M) undertook to establish a Work-list of Artifact Reconciliation Tasks (orWARTs). This list will serve as a vehiclefor identifying, classifying, and resolvingsuch inconsistencies (individual "warts")as they are identified.

"Catching" WARTsThe majority of items on the WARTs listwill be issues raised as part of someindividual's review of one or more of theV3 ballot specifications. HL7 is fortunatethat there are several individuals whohave undertaken to read almost all ofthe V3 specifications and are, therefore,in a position to identify circumstances inwhich one committee's representation ofa particular set of artifacts differs signifi-cantly from another committee's repre-sentation of similar artifacts.

The sources of items to be consideredinclude: informal review of ballot docu-ments; ballot responses as submitted toindividual committees; ballot responsesdirected to the Publications Committeeand to M&M; and comments receivedpost-publication from individuals attempt-ing to work with the specifications.

M&M will assist in identifying theseitems by:

• asking each individual Technical Committee to forward issues that the TC believes represents a warthey review ballot comments received for their domain

• adding a new "category" of ballot comments to the ballot spread-sheets so that voters can directly submit items to the WARTS process; and

• ask the other committees whose responsibilities span multiple Technical Committees (Process Improvement Committee, Organization Review committee, Architecture Review Board, and Implementation Committee) to be alert for warts-like issues and forward them to M&M.

"Treating" WARTsIn outline, the overall process for man-aging cases of WARTs is as follows:

1. Items for consideration will be forwarded to M&M which will enter them in a tracking log;

2. Each reported item will be reviewed to allow its triage into one of four categories:a. Previously reported is a for

circumstances where the same issue was raised previously, in which case the new issue will be consolidated with its predecessor;

b. Failure to follow established guidelines covers items that arise through a failure to follow previously established rules or guidelines. In this circumstance,the report will be forwarded to be ARB for its notation.

c. Acceptable diversity includes items for which the M&M reviewers find that the item represents reasonable diversity within the V3 specifications and is not, therefore a wart;

d. WARTs items include all of thosereports that the M&M reviewers agree need addressing. In the early rounds, the large majority of submitted items have fallen into this category.

3. Once an item has been accepted for action and resolution, M&M will undertake to have an appro-priate new rule or style-guide created to avoid such inconsisten-cies in the future. Although M&Mmay undertake to develop a style guide, it will, more commonly, askhe Technical Committee(s) involved to recommend a style guide for adoption by M&M. Regardless of whether the creation of a style guide has been delegated

to another committee, tracking of the progress toward such resolution will remain respons-bility of Methodology and Modeling.

4. The final step in the process will be the adoption of the new rule orstyle guide and dissemination of these guides to all Technical Committees.

Current WARTs "Case registry"During its initial discussions of theWARTs list, M&M has identified issuesin the following categories:

• Design patterns is a category thatcovers a variety of issues that arisebecause the relationship betweendesign artifacts is differs acrosscommittees. Examples include dif-ferent patterns of interactions; theuse of notification messages, asopposed to polling or the creationof request/fulfillment messages;varying bases for trigger event defi-nitions; and differing "stereotypes"for Application Roles.

• Use of CMETs is a category thatarises because the management ofCMET material differs committee tocommittee. In some circumstances,"local" CMETs have been devel-oped, where a more universalCMET might have been moreappropriate. In other cases, therequirement to represent a CMETwithin a single Domain InformationModel has caused apparent incon-sistencies in the DIMs themselves.

• Domain content is a category thatreflects inconsistencies in the wayelements within a particulardomain are named or organized,rather than inconsistencies indesign. Topics that have beenraised include the use of artifactnames whose meaning is not readi-ly understood; embedding seman-tics in clone names; the use ofhomonyms and synonyms; varyinglevels of documentation detail (par-ticularly for design walk-throughs);and the structuring of the modelhierarchy that holds the designcontent of a particular domain.

From Early Adopter toNational Strategy

United Kingdom releasedV3 Message ImplementationGuidelines for their NPfITProgram

HL7 Version 3 as a strategy for health-care communications is no longer anexception. Some countries, for exam-ple United Kingdom among others,made far-reaching decisions for theirnational healthcare information sys-tems. I remember it vividly: in theUK, V3 efforts began with their GP toGP project, a collaboration of consult-ants, universities and others to sup-port general practitioners with theelectronic exchange of clinical infor-mation. Not only specifications werewritten, also implementation andtools came out of this project.

Meanwhile the National HealthService (NHS) in England decided toroll out Version 3 as a national strate-gy for health communication, knownas the National Programme forInformation Technology (NPfIT). Thisincludes not only content definitionsin order to support for example elec-tronic booking and scheduling(eBooking), medication, emergencydata and provision of care etc., but

also transport and security issues interms of a whole framework for infor-mation exchange.

Recently the newest version of theNPfIT Message ImplementationManual was issued and is availablefor download on interest.

HL7 Roadshow in Pragueand Baltic States Conferencein Riga

In April, two special HL7 relatedevents happened. In Prague, CzechRepublic, a one day HL7 Conferencewas organized by HL7 CzechRepublic and HL7 Germany in con-junction with the EuroMISE confer-ence. The EuroMISE institute celebrat-ed its 10th anniversary and the direc-tor of the organization, Mrs JanaZvárova, combined the conferencethat convened from April 12-16 withan IMIA working group meeting andsome IMIA and EFMI satellite sym-posia. On April 16, an “HL7 day”gave an overview about EuropeanHL7 projects, initiatives and imple-mentations, especially addressing theEastern European countries.In Riga, capital of Latvia, the BalticIT&T conference took place. The wellattended IT conference also had twodays related to healthcare IT report-ing on Version 3 implementations in

Europe. Lithuania,already an HL7 affil-iate, Latvia andEstonia may estab-lish a Baltic StatesAffiliate to bundletheir efforts. To us itwas surprising howthese countries pro-ceed within a shortperiod of time.Lithuania, Latvia andEstonia know thatthey have our fullsupport.

The city hall of Rigais completely rebuiltin old style and maybe seen as a symbolfor the combinationof tradition andinnovation in Riga,Lativa, and the Baltic States.

Come to Mexico: two inter-national Conferences in arow in Acapulco in October

A successful story celebrates its 5thanniversary: The HL7 InternationalAffiliates Meeting. After successfuland well-attended meetings inDresden (Germany), Reading (UnitedKingdom), Melbourne (Australia) andDaegu (South Korea) now HL7Mexico invites the International HL7Affiliates and interested guests tomeet in marvelous and invitingAcapulco to exchange ideas andshare experience of the latest interna-tional developments in HL7.

In the same week the 2ndInternational Conference on theClinical Document Architecture alsoconvenes in Acapulco, same location.With topic theme “From the IvoryTower to the Trenches” and buildingon the success of the firstInternational Conference on the CDAheld in Berlin two years ago, theAcapulco meeting will bring togetherthe expanding CDA user base withstandards developers, tools designersand researchers for further explo-ration of this specification for clinicaldocuments.

For further information please visithttp://www.hl7.de/iamcda2004/.

International Calendar5th International AffiliatesMeeting October 2004 in Mexico

2nd International Conference onCDA October 2004 in Mexico

Full HL7 Working Group Meetingin the Netherlands, May 1-6, 2005

15

Kai Heitmann

HL7 International Affairs By Kai U. Heitmann, International Representative, HL7 Board of Directors

Representatives from many HL7 International Affiliates met onSunday in San Antonio at the May HL7 Working Group Meeting.



16

Going Dutch with HL7:May 2005 Working Group Meeting Scheduled for the Netherlands

By Tom de Jong; Co-Chair, HL7 Netherlands TC

As most of you have heard, May 1-6, 2005 will bring us thefirst HL7 working group meeting on the European continent.A lot of effort has been spent to make sure that this event canbe organized in a way that ensures the usual productivity of afull HL7 working group meeting and simultaneously minimizespotential financial risks for HL7. Now that these preliminarystages have passed, it is time to start spreading the word: theHL7 working group meeting goes to Holland!

If you are a regularattendee of HL7working groupmeetings in the US,there is no reasonwhy you shouldn’tattend the May2005 meeting inHolland, whichwill be held at theNH Leeuwenhorsthotel inNoordwijkerhout.Granted, flighttimes for Americanattendees might be a little longer, but Amsterdam airport hasexcellent, affordable connections to most major airports in theUS and worldwide. Moreover, this could be an excellentopportunity to spend some leisure time in Europe, before orafter the meeting.

The technical committees and special interest groups will meetand carry on their regular tasks just like they would in the US,

and the core HL7 experts will also be pres-ent. The education committee is preparingan extended tutorial program, to cater tothe expected influx of new attendees fromEurope and Asia. In the past several years,HL7 has truly become a worldwide stan-dardization effort, and in May 2005 this will be more obviousthan ever. On the one hand it should be business as usual,but the European location will be an important signal that pro-fessionals worldwide are joining forces.

With a hotel that is located right in the heart of the famousDutch tulip fields, there will be ample opportunity to discoverHolland’s hot spots as well as its quiet places. DowntownAmsterdam is only half an hour away by train, but the hotel isalso just five minutes from the North Sea beach. In light ofthe hotel’s location, there will be special arrangements fortransport and tours so you can get the most out of HL7’s firsttransatlantic working group meeting!

More information will follow in the months to come via thewebsite (www.HL7.org), but make sure to mark May 1-6, 2005on next year’s calendar. You might want to consider coming atleast a day earlier and experience Queen’s Day in Amsterdamon April 30. Here’s hoping that everybody recovers from thatholiday quickly, because there will be lots of work to cover,many things to learn, and new ideas to exchange. HL7 needsyour input as always, but this time your trip will truly be aDutch treat!

We’re looking forward to seeing you in Holland.

Tom de Jong

INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATE CONTACTSHL7 ArgentinaGuilermo Reynoso, M.D.Phone: 011-54-11-4026-9851E-mail:[email protected]

HL7 AustraliaKlaus VeilPhone: 61-412-746-457E-mail: [email protected]

HL7 BrazilDr. Marivan Santiago AbrahaoPhone: 55-11-3045-3045Email: [email protected]

HL7 CanadaGrant Gillis Phone: 416-481-2002E-mail: [email protected]

HL7 ChinaZijun ZhouPhone: 8610-62092265E-mail: [email protected]

HL7 CroatiaGjuro Dezelic, Ph.D.Phone: +385 1 4590 105Email: [email protected]

HL7 Czech RepublicPetr HanzlicekPhone: 420-2-66053788 Email: [email protected]

HL7 DenmarkKenneth AhrensbergPhone: 45-3996-6101E-mail: [email protected]

HL7 FinlandNiilo SaranummiPhone: 358-3-316-3300E-mail: [email protected]

HL7 GermanyBernd Blobel, Ph.D.Phone: 49-391-731-0250Email: [email protected]

HL7 Greece Dimitris Koutsouris Phone: 30-1-0772-2453E-mail:[email protected]

HL7 IndiaSaji Salam, M.D.Phone: 9180-505-3538E-mail: [email protected]

HL7 IrelandPeter LennonPhone: 01-635-3011/13Email: [email protected]

HL7 JapanMichio Kimura, M.D.Phone: 81-3-3506-8010E-mail: [email protected]

HL7 KoreaYun Sik Kwak, M.D., Ph.D.Phone: 82-053-420-6050E-mail: [email protected]

HL7 LithuaniaJonas PunysPhone: 370-7-451-577E-mail: [email protected]

HL7 Mexico Adriana Velázquez Berúmen Phone: 5 2-55-52071467E-mail: [email protected]

HL7 The NetherlandsRobert StegweePhone: 31-30-689-2730E-mail: [email protected]

HL7 New ZealandMartin EntwhistleE-mail: [email protected]

HL7 SpainJordi BisbePhone: 3493-253-6100Email: [email protected]

HL7 SwitzerlandAndrzej KnafelPhone: 41-41-799-2883Email: [email protected]

HL7 TaiwanChien-Tsai Liu, PhD.Phone: 886-2- 2720-3790E-mail: [email protected]

HL7 UKDavid Markwell Phone: 44-118-958-4954E-mail: [email protected]

17

International Committee: Co-Chairs and CharterAs was reported last issue, the HL7Board of Directors has expanded theInternational Committee. The Co-chairs of the Board-appointed commit-tee are: Kai Heitmann, M.D.,International Representative to theBoard; Jane Howarth (HL7 Canada),Secretary; Miroslav Koncar (HL7Croatia), Technical; Laura Sato (HL7UK), HL7. Inc. Liaison; and Klaus Veil(HL7 Australia), Affiliate Liaison.

This group supports the HL7 missionto create and promote its standards byhelping to assure that the needs,issues, and other input of the HL7International Affiliates are recognizedand effectively acted on by the HL7organization.

As part of its Charter, the InternationalCommittee provides a forum for theHL7 International Affiliates and otherinterested HL7 members to communi-cate and exchange views as well asdiscuss issues regarding the interna-tional development, adoption, applica-tion and implementation of the HL7Standard.

The International Committee collates,evaluates and actions -- for processingby other entities within HL7 -- anyneeds, issues and other inputexpressed and agreed to by the HL7International Affiliates.

The International Committee recom-mends to the Board of Directorsactions and policies on behalf of theInternational Affiliates.

The International Committee advisesthe Technical Steering Committee andBoard of Directors on matters relatingto areas of standardization that are rel-evant to the International Affiliates.

Participation in the InternationalCommittee is open to representativesof all HL7 International Affiliates andother interested HL7 members.Contact Kai Heitmann (Ph: 49-221-478-6507 / Email: [email protected])for more information.

Joint International CDA Conference &Affiliates Meeting to take place in

Acapulco, MexicoThis year’s 5th International Affiliate &2nd CDA International Meetings will beheld in Acapulco, Mexico from October18 -22 2004.

On October 18-19 the InternationalAffiliate Meeting will take place, cover-ing topics such as "V3 ImplementationExperiences" and "National ElectronicHealth Record initiatives."

From the Ivory Tower to theTrenchesAfterward, on October 21–22, the secondinternational conference on the ClinicalDocument Architecture (CDA) will occur.Building on the success of the firstInternational Conference on the CDAheld in Berlin two years ago, theAcapulco meeting will bring together theexpanding CDA user base with standardsdevelopers, tools designers andresearchers for further exploration of thisspecification for clinical documents.

Both meetings will include workshops,tutorials and case studies to better studytheir respective topics. October 20 hasbeen designated “Tutorial Wednesday.”

Both conferences will have their tutori-als on this date at no additional charge.

Mexico has expressed their interest ingetting participation not only from allInternational Affiliates, but also encour-ages U.S. members to join this year’sinternational meetings.

For more information, please visit theConference Website:http://www.hl7.de/iamcda2004/.

Or Contact:

MEXICODario de [email protected]+5255 53282000 x 3289

USALiora [email protected](802)785-2623

EUROPEKai U. [email protected]+316 14462697

France Petitions for Affiliate OfficeI am pleased to announce that wereceived a petition from FrancoisMacray on behalf of HL7 France, toestablish an official HL7 Affiliate inFrance. The HL7 Board of Directorshas accepted this petition.

France is one of the European coun-tries with a longer history of health-care information exchange using theirown exchange standard, H-Prime.Over the last years and month severalpeople in France were busy to over-come the hurdles and introduce HL7,

which is obviously not easy in acountry with a proprietary but work-ing and widespread communicationprotocol. HL7 France is also alreadyactive in the IHE initiative.

I know that the formation of a Frenchaffiliate enjoys widespread supportamong established HL7 internationalaffiliates.

--Kai HeitmannDirector International Affiliates –Board of Directors, HL7


18

Mexico EHR Status— Call to MembershipWe are trying to get a status of EHRs around the world tobuild up some analysis of how we all are regarding nationalimplementation.

Below is a brief description of our status, and we hope manyof you can share with us any information regardingnational implementations.

HL7 Mexico

Mexican Institute of Social Security(IMSS)

The problem:IMSS desires to create a national Electronic Health Recordsystem that will:

• Support healthcare coverage for 50 million private sec-tor workers across 1359 interfaces (1200 family practi-tioners, 120 general and regional hospitals, and 39 spe-cialized hospitals).

• Create a lifetime healthcare record that can be accessedfrom anywhere in Mexico.

• Support a patient’s clinical history reuse in Referrals,Lab Results, and Lab Orders.

• Support clinical trial research.

• Provide statistical input for budgetary analyses.

The approach:

• Define a nationally-based “centralized repository infor-mation model” (to house clinical information).

• Use locally-based “defined domain information models”(to house, for example, Hemodialysis, Laboratory, andBlood Bank information).

• New vendors and providers must comply with DICOM-imaging and HL7 version 3 domain-specific messagingstandards.

• Use WSDL (Web Services Description Language) (fornationwide, web-based communications).

• Use an interface engine (for data transformation androuting).

• It is approached from the beginning as a nationalimplementation.

Status: The IMSS is divided into all the levels of service for whichthe following Information Systems have been successfullyimplemented using HL7 V3 to integrate the information intothe EHR:

1. Family Medicine – 1200 facilities a. The Family Medicine EHRs has included HL7 V3

Messaging for information of: i. Patient Registrationii. Clinical Notes (CDA Level 2)iii. Lab Orders and Results

2. General Hospitals & Specialities– 160 facilities a. Hemodialysis Information Systems have included HL7

V3 Messaging for information of: i. Registration in/out of Dialysis Programsii. Hemodialysis Sesion

b. Blood Bank Information Systems have included HL7 V3 Messaging for information of: i. Donation Orders & Eventsii. Eligibilityiii. Stock Input & Output

c. Laboratory Information Systems have included HL7 V3 Messaging for information of: i. Orders & Result

The following chart shows the number of locationsand vendors which will have successfully implemented HL7 V3 messaging in their ClinicalInformation Systems by July 2004.

Clinical Service Information Systems Medical Centers

Laboratory 3 vendors 105

Hemodialysis 5 vendors 74

Blood Bank 3 vendors 34

Family Medicine 1 vendor 105

Future Key Actions for 20041. Implement QUERY services to use the information

Stored by all Clinical Information Systems by August 2003

2. Implement Spanish version of VISTA at 4 Hospitals by December 2004

3. Grow to 200 Family Medicine EHRs around the country


The Board Appointed Tooling Committeeheld their first Working Group Meeting inSan Antonio in May 2004.

This Committee evolved from the ToolingTask Force created by the Board in May2003. While focusing primarily on toolbuilders and tool users, the ToolingCommittee will be making recommenda-tions to the HL7 Board and TechnicalSteering Committee regarding tools sup-port for the HL7 standards. This groupwill establish the policies and processesthat accomplish the functions of require-ments, configuration, and deploymentmanagement of HL7 developed, endorsed,or fostered tools. This includes mecha-nisms for gathering requirements, settingpriorities, testing, evaluating, managingreleases, funding, and harmonizing toolswork from independent sources.

For HL7-sponsored technology and sup-port, the Tooling Committee will provideguidance for architecture and technicalstandards, configuration, development oracquisition targets, technical support andinfrastructure. As well, this group will pro-vide a forum for tools input and questionsfrom the HL7 membership.

At the Atlanta Annual Working GroupMeeting in September 2004, toolingrequirements will be sought from the HL7membership. You are invited to partici-pate then and/or sign up to the ToolingCommittee list to follow the develop-ments. The Committee needs broad par-ticipation to help with identifying, validat-ing and refining the HL7 V2 and V3 tool-ing-related requirements, selection anddevelopment.

Looking forward to hearing from you…

The Tooling Committee

19

Role and Responsibilities of the Tooling Committee

Congratulations to the following people who passed the HL7 Certification Exam

Certified HL7 V2.4Chapter 2 ControlSpecialistMarch 31, 2004Raviraj Gunturi William Jutz Rajanikanth Kanyaboina Sandeej Kottal Cyrus Munshi Sujan Pandaram Christopher Pound Jerold Stefek

Andrew Te Jack Yang

May 6, 2004Heidi L. Brown Nuno P. Cabral Gary W. Check Bruce E. Comly Jeffrey DyellMyoung-Ju Jeon Byron W. KruseBenjamin A. Levy

Liang Lou Linda W. NoffsingerBill Ross Mark M. SnyderHarry Wu

HL7 CanadaApril 22, 2004Boon Yee Chang Georges HaddadLiana KreveskyAshraf Philips

HL7 ChinaApril 3, 2004Zhao JuanmeiJiang LinJianghua Peng

HL7 KoreaApril 2, 2004Jong-Hyuk Lee Jintae SongKiSung UM

Co-Chair ElectionsSan Antonio Co-Chair Election ResultsCo-Chair elections were held in SanAntonio, and the following individualswere elected. Congratulations!

Attachments Michael CassidyWes Rishel

Community John FirlBased Health

Conformance Jennifer Pueynbroek

Control/Query Jennifer PuyenbroekRene Spronk

Financial Kathleen ConnorManagement Susan Lepping

Lab Louis Brown (2 yr term)Austin Kreisler (1 yr term)

Modeling & Dale NelsonMethodology

Patient Jean FerraroAdministration

Patient Care David Rowed

LAPOCT John Firl

Also, the following individuals wereappointed to co-chair positions on Board-appointed committees:

Rene Spronk (HL7 NL) as a co-chair ofthe Marketing Committee; and

Tim Benson (HL7 UK) as a co-chair of theEducation Committee.

Upcoming Atlanta Co-ChairElectionsThe following HL7 Technical Committeesand Special Interest Groups will conductco-chair elections at the upcoming Hl7working group meeting, which convenesSeptember 26 – October 1, 2004 inAtlanta, GA: • Clinical Decision Support - electing

one co-chair to fill the position cur-rently held by Ian Purves (who maybe re-elected)

• Community Based Health - electingone co-chair to fill the position cur-rently held by Louis Gordon (whomay be re-elected)

• Control/Query - electing one co-chairto fill the position currently held byJoann Larson (who may be re-elected)

• MnM - electing one co-chair to fill theposition currently held by WoodyBeeler (who may be re-elected)

• Orders and Observations - electingone co-chair to fill the position cur-rently held by Gunther Schadow (whomay be re-elected)

• Pediatric Data Standards - adding anadditional co-chair

• Public Health Emergency ResponseSIG - this new SIG is electing 3 co-chairs

• Scheduling - electing one co-chair tofill the position currently held by JaneFoard (who may be re-elected)

• Security and Accountabiliy - electing aco-chair to replace Gary Dickinson,who resigned


20

Alpha Release of the Java API to the HL7 Version 3 RIMBy Peter Hendler, MD, Kaiser Permanente, Fremont, California

Todd Freter, Sun Microsystems, Inc, Newark, California

At the May 2004 HL7 Working Groups Meeting in SanAntonio, an event occurred that may have escaped thenotice of some HL7 members and meeting participants. TheJava SIG announced that the Java API to the HL7 Version 3RIM (Reference Information Model) is available in an alpharelease for testing. This represents a major milestone in thework of the Java SIG, and its two co-chairs wish to offersome background information as well as some updates tothe HL7 membership about this important effort.

In early 2002, a small group from Sun Microsystems,Kaiser, Oracle, Regenstrief Institute, and UNLV approachedHL7 to petition for the formation of a Java SIG to createsuch a framework. The Java SIG was formed after receiv-ing approval from the TSC and Board of Directors at theMay meeting in 2002 in Atlanta. Following on the principalassumption within HL7 over the past few years, namely,that V3 messaging has many additional capabilities aboveand beyond V2-based messaging, the Java SIG wanted toprove the advanced capabilities of HL7 V3 messaging bycreating a cross-platform API in the Java language forapplication developers.

The new HL7 V3 messaging framework is based on anobject-oriented data model, the RIM, and on defined datatypes. Because the data model is well defined, the derivedmessages are unambiguous and standardized. With V3, twounrelated systems that have no previous knowledge ofeach other should be able to exchange messages withoutfirst agreeing on what various message components repre-sent. This interoperability without the need for prior nego-tiation between enterprises is a key technological differ-ence between V3 and the approach taken in V2, based asit is on traditional EDI.

In addition to this well-defined data model in V3, there areclear rules for how the data is to be packaged into a mes-sage. In most cases, the message data will be in XML for-mat. The rules for packaging the information in the RIM-based data model into an HL7 V3 XML message aredescribed in the HMD (Hierarchical Message Definition) forthe particular message type.

In order to create an automated system that communicateswith the HL7 V3 standard, one would need the ability torepresent the data internally, and the ability to create or toparse the HL7 XML message that holds the data. If the sys-tem were only to process a few known types of messages,then the meta-information contained in the HMD, which isneeded to go from data model to message, or vice versa,could be coded as part of the system. This has the advan-tage of being simple to do, but it also has the major disad-

vantage of working only for the few message types thesystem is designed to process. It also leaves the applicationvulnerable to changes voted to any aspect of a standardmessage type.

What was really needed, then, is a framework that wouldallow developers to create systems that do not need to havepre-existing knowledge of message type and structure. Itwould be ideal if a receiving system could take as input anymessage and its associated HMD, and would then knowhow to process the information. Conversely, a sending sys-tem would be able to take the data and an HMD, and knowhow to create the correct HL7 V3 message without any pre-existing knowledge of message structure.

Accordingly, the Java SIG set these generalized capabilitiesof a V3-compliant system as fundamental design objectivesfor the Java API. These capabilities are illustrated in the fig-ures below.

In Figure 1 above, “Creating V3 XML Messages” the com-plex object represented by the “HL7 RMIM instance inmemory” is a Java graph, or multi-object structure. Whenthe message is in memory as a Java graph, the applicationdeveloper can use knowledge of this structure to manipu-late the message content. When it is time to send the mes-sage to another system, the complex structure of the RMIMinstance must be serialized into a stream of XML data. The“Java HL7 message builder” in the center represents toolingthat applies meta-information about the message type andconverts the complex structure of the RMIM instance into acorrect stream of XML data that conforms to the messagestandard expressed in the HMD. The snippet of XML codeon the right, the “HL7 XML message” represents the result.

Figure 1


By contrast, Figure 2 below , “Parsing V3 XML messages,”represents the reverse process. A system may receive a V3message as an XML stream. The “Java HL7 message parser”in the center represents tooling that also applies meta-infor-mation about the message type to the incoming XMLstream so that the XML data can be converted into a cor-rect “HL7 RMIM instance in memory,” also in the form of aJava graph. Once the RMIM results from the parsing opera-tion, the application can similarly access the message con-tent to perform a variety of operations on the data.

These important and universal capabilities, that is, messagebuilding and parsing, should not have to be re-createdeach time a new system is designed. The ability to repre-sent RIM data internally, and the ability to use that informa-tion with HMD information to create or receive messagesare generic capabilities that all V3-enabled systems need topossess.

This goal of creating a generalized framework that allowsany system to parse XML V3 messages into RIM-like objectsand, conversely, to start with RIM-like objects and createHL7 V3 messages, was hardly trivial, but the potential ben-efits to healthcare application developers are high, and itwas exactly this goal that the HL7 Java SIG set out toaccomplish.

Since the initial design work and many of the API compo-nents have been completed, the Java SIG has been joinedby people from NCICB, and the group of has been work-ing on this framework ever since:

• First, the Java SIG has created both Java interfaces andclasses to represent all of the core RIM objects. It hascreated Java interfaces and classes to represent all of theHL7 data types. Java SIG has also created XSLT trans-forms that produce the source code for RIM objects.

• Next, the Java SIG created a “meta” package that canparse HMD information from HMD files or databasetables. This is the meta-information that is needed totransform RIM data objects to XML messages and viceversa.

• Then a “parser” package was created that can receive anXML V3 message, and along with the HMD informationmentioned above, construct an in-memory representa-tion of the data in the form of a graph of Java RIMobjects.

• Finally, the Java SIG created a “builder” package thatcan take the in-memory data in the form of a RIM objectgraph, and create an HL7 XML message.

To repeat, the Java SIG announced the alpha release of thisframework (API) at the HL7 working group meeting in SanDiego. It can be downloaded and tested by any HL7 mem-ber, and it is posted in the members-only section of theHL7 web site. The API can run from the command lineusing the ANT utility. It can also run in various IDEs. It hasbeen run in NetBeans, Jedit, and Eclipse with special plug-ins for JDK1.5. Figure 3, below, shows the Java SIG's APIrunning in the NetBeans environment.

Anyone interested in designing HL7 V3-compliant systemsshould consider using the Java SIG's API to greatly reducethe time it takes to implement a successful system.The Java SIG looks forward to receiving feedback from theHL7 membership on this alpha release, and as always,interested HL7 members who wish to contribute to thiseffort are welcome to join the SIG.

Finally, the co-chairs gratefully acknowledge the three indi-viduals who came forward at the very beginning anddonated so much of their time and talent to design anddevelop the Java API to HL7 RIM V3: Skirmantas Kligys(Oracle), Geoffry Roberts (UNLV), and Gunther Schadow(Regenstrief). Without them there would be no Java API.

Peter Hendler MD is a rheumatologist with a clinical practiceat Kaiser in Fremont, California. He is also a frequent con-sultant on complex information modeling projects withinKaiser and other healthcare enterprises.

Todd Freter is an Engineering Program Manager in theAdvanced Development and Industry Initiatives group ofSun's Java Web Services organization.

21

Figure 2

Figure 3


22

EDUCATIONAL SUMMITS

August 17–18, 2004Hyatt Regency Crystal City

Arlington, VA

November 9–10, 2004Hilton Scottsdale Resort

Scottsdale, AZ

UPCOMING MEETINGS

May 1-6, 2005May Working Group Meeting

NH Leeuwenhorst HotelNoordwijkerhout, The Netherlands

September 11-17, 200519th Plenary & Working Group

MeetingTown & Country Resort

San Diego, CAJanuary 23-28, 2005January Working Group Meeting The Hilton in the Walt Disney Resort

Orlando, Florida

PLEASE BOOK YOUR ROOM AT THE HL7 MEETING HOTEL

HL7 urges all meeting attendees to secure your hotel reservations at the HL7 Working Group MeetingHost Hotel. In order to secure the required meeting space, HL7 has a contractual obligation to fillour sleeping room block. If you make reservations at a different hotel, HL7 risks falling short on ourobligation and will incur additional costs in the form of penalties. Should this occur, HL7 will likelybe forced to pass these costs onto our attendees through increased meeting registration fees. Thank you for your cooperation!


As part of their attempt to improve HL7processes, The Process ImprovementCommittee (PIC) identified a number ofopportunities to facilitate the HL7 ballot-ing process for both submitters andreviewers of ballot comments. PICdecided to create a Ballot Task Forcewith the purpose:

To focus on improving all aspects of HL7Balloting. This task force identifies,tracks, and resolves issues related to theballoting process. This includes but is notlimited to; proposing changes to the HL7Policies and Procedures, and Bylaws;updating the ballot comment spread-sheets; and recommending improve-ments to existing web applications tofacilitate balloting.

The Ballot Task Force has been respon-sible for the Ballot Comment spread-sheets and will continue to makeimprovements based on user feedback.The Ballot Task Force also created aballot amalgamation macro, which canbe used to forge several ballot commentspreadsheets into a single spreadsheet.The advantages of this macro to ballotsubmitters is it that it helps them takemultiple comments from differentreviewers and place them into a singlespreadsheet while at the same timeretaining enough information about theoriginal reviewers so that they can becontacted during the ballot reconcilia-tion process. Co-chairs of TCs and SIGswill also appreciate the ability to usethis macro to import all the commentsthey received on a single ballot into onespreadsheet, from which they can sortsimilar comments and disposition themall at once. This macro is shipped as anadditional MS Excel file with the ballotcomment spreadsheets. (This is impor-tant to note for all users who have secu-rity that does not allow them to runmacros. You do not need this macro inorder to enter your comments into aballot comment spreadsheet.) Our nextbig work item will be to developprocesses and supporting tools to aid inthe tracking of ballot comments thathave been refered to and from TCs andSIGs.

“Balloting is one method we use in HL7to build consensus, and consensus

building is the integral part of our stan-dards development. It is what differen-tiates our standards from those that arewritten by a single person or organiza-tion,” said Gavin Tong, HL7 Canada.

The Ballot Task Force is open to every-one. New members who are looking toget involved in HL7 but have time con-straints should consider participating inthe Ballot Task Force as there are plentyof small, but important, work items weneed help with. We also need the inputof new members to help us understandif where we’ve been successful in sim-plyfing the balloting process, and wherewe still need to improve it. We are alsoasking our colleagues out there whodon’t have time to participate that they

please consider passing this invitationon to other staff, co-op students orinterns they may work with.

You can start by joining any of ourweekly teleconferences held everyWednesday, 3:00-4:00 PM Eastern. Dial703-788-0600 and enter the participantpasscode 439164# when prompted.

For more information, please visit ourwebsite at http://www.hl7.org/Special/committees/btf/index.cfm, or contactGavin Tong at [email protected].

23

Board Approves Public Health andEmergency Response (PHER)

Special Interest Group

PIC’s Ballot Task Force

As mentioned in the Update fromHeadquarters, the Board of Directorshas approved the creation of a PublicHealth and Emergency Response(PHER) Special Interest Group.

The PHER SIG supports the HL7 mis-sion to create and promote its stan-dards by helping to assure that HL7V2.x and V3 models and messagesaddress the requirements of themany government and non-govern-mental agencies involved in popula-tion-based and public health surveil-lance and response activities.Specific areas of interest includeevent detection, outbreak investiga-tion, human and animal populationhealth monitoring, disease/conditioncase reporting, environmental obser-vations related to health issues, emer-gency coordination, and legal issuesincluding chain of custody and isola-tion/quarantine.

The messages developed by this SIGmay also be used to communicatelocal, state and national health sum-

mary information to internationalmonitoring bodies such as WHO andOIE.

As part of its Charter, the PHER SIGwill provide a joint forum for mem-bers of germane TechnicalCommittees to discuss and developmodels and messages supporting dis-ease and event detection, reportingto monitoring and regulatory agen-cies, public health disease response/control, food safety, environmentalhealth, emergency preparedness andresponse, and bioterrorism/agroter-rorism. The SIG will specifically takeinto account the need for real-timeinteractions and the experiences ofexisting national and internationalmessaging initiatives.

The Public Health Data StandardsConsortium, an HL7 member organi-zation, and participating public healthagencies will provide outreach topotential users (i.e., the public healthworkforce) to inform them aboutPHER SIG activities and products.


BenefactorsBooz Allen Hamilton Inc.Cap Gemini Ernst & Young US LLCDocumentum (division of EMC)Eclipsys CorporationEli Lilly and CompanyFood and Drug AdministrationGE Healthcare Information TechnologiesGuidant CorporationHIMS Solutions Inc.IBMIDX Systems CorporationInterSystemsKaiser PermanenteMcKesson Information SolutionsMicrosoft CorporationMisys Healthcare SystemsNHS National Programme for ITOracle Corporation - HealthcarePartners HealthCare System, Inc.Pfizer Inc.Philips Medical SystemsQuest Diagnostics, IncorporatedSAIC - Science Applications International

CorpSiemens Medical Solutions Health ServicesU.S. Department of Defense, Military

Health SystemU.S. Department of Veterans AffairsWyeth Pharmaceuticals

SupportersBeeler Consulting LLCiNTERFACEWARE CorporationJohnson & Johnson PRDLINK Medical Computing, Inc.Sentillion, Inc.

ConsultantsBeeler Consulting LLCBooz Allen Hamilton Inc.Business InnovationCap Gemini Ernst & Young US LLCCollege of American PathologistsComputer Frontiers Inc.Digital Infuzion, Inc.Emergint, Inc.First Consulting GroupGartnerHLN Consulting, LLCILLICOMInformation Technology Architects, Inc.iNTERFACEWARE CorporationIntrasphere Technologies, Inc.MediServe Information Systems, Inc.MedQuist, Inc.Multimodal Technologies, Inc.Northrop Grumman Information

Technology

Nuclear DiagnosticsOTech, Inc.QuestQuicksilva LtdRadvault, Inc.Scientific Technologies CorporationSYMBIONICS, INCTata Consultancy Services TCSThe Rehab Documentation Company, LLCThe SIMI Group, Inc.University of Utah HospitalXIMIS, Inc.

General InterestACT HealthAFNORAgency for Healthcare Research

and QualityAmerican Academy of Family PhysiciansAmerican Assoc. of Veterinary Lab

DiagnosticiansAmerican Association for Medical

TranscriptionAmerican College of PhysiciansAmerican College of RadiologyAmerican Health Information Management

AssociationAmerican Medical AssociationAmerican Nurses AssociationAmerican Optometric AssociationAmerican Society for Automation

in PharmacyAmerican Society of Health-System

PharmacistsAmerican Veterinary Medical AssociationBlue Cross Blue Shield AssociationCalifornia Department of Health Services-

BerkeleyCalifornia Department of Health Services-

CLPPBCalifornia Department of Health Services-

Rancho CoCancer Care OntarioCDISCCenters for Disease Control and

Prevention/CDCCenters for Medicare & Medicaid ServicesCentre for Development of AdvancedComputing C-DACCentre for Health InformaticsChild Health Corporation of AmericaCollege of Healthcare Information Mgmt.

ExecutivesCommerceNetCommunity Health Care-Wausau HospitalCounty of Los Angeles, Department of

Mental HealthDelta Dental Plans AssociationDepartment of Human Services

ECRIFederal Occupational HealthFood and Drug AdministrationGeorgia Div of Public Health,

Epidemiology BranchGeorgia Medical Care FoundationGITI, Waseda UniversityHealth Board ExecutiveHIMSSICCBBA, Inc.Illinois Department of Human ServicesIllinois Department of Public HealthInstituto Mexicano del Seguros Social

(IMSS)Joint Commission on Accreditation of

Healthcare OrganizationsLos Alamos National LaboratoryMEDINFO Lab - DIST -

University of GenoaN.A.A.C.C.R.NACHRINANDA InternationalNational Alliance for Health

InformationTechnologyNational Center for Health Statistics/CDCNational Disease Surveillance CentreNational Institute of Allergy & Infectious

DiseaseNational Institute of Standards and

TechnologyNational Library of MedicineNat'l Center for Research Resources, NIHNemours Children's ClinicsNew Jersey Dept. of Health and Senior

ServicesNew York State Department of Health,

Wadsworth CtrNICTIZ National HealthcareNorth Western Health BoardOchsner Medical FoundationOregon Health & Science UniversityOregon Health DivisionPennsylvania Dept of Health-Bureau of

InformationPublic Health Data Standards ConsortiumPublic Health, Seattle & King CountySouthern Health BoardSouthwest Research InstituteStanford Medical Informatics,

Stanford UniversitySultanate of Oman, Ministry of HealthTennessee Department of HealthU.S. Department of Health &

Human ServicesUniversity of Iowa - College of NursingUniversity of Iowa Hygienic LabUniversity of Nebraska Medical CenterUniversity of South FloridaURAC

HL7 2004 ORGANIZATIONAL MEMBERS

24


25

UT Health Center at TylerWashington State Department of HealthWVDHHR Bureau for Medical Services

PayersBlue Cross & Blue Shield of IllinoisBlue Cross Blue Shield of South CarolinaEmpire Blue Cross Blue ShieldUnitedHealth GroupWisconsin Physicians Service Ins. Corp.

PharmacyAventis PharmaceuticalsBristol-Myers SquibbEli Lilly and CompanyJ&J PRDPfizer Inc.Wyeth Pharmaceuticals

ProvidersACTS Retirement - Life Communities, Inc.Advanced Healthcare, S.C.Akron General Medical CenterAltru Health SystemARUP Laboratories, Inc.Athens Regional Health Services, Inc.Baylor College of MedicineBaylor Health Care SystemBJC Health SystemBorgess Medical CenterBreastScreen VictoriaBrookdale University Hospital &

Medical CenterCanadian Forces Health ServicesCardinal Hill Healthcare SystemCareAlliance Health ServicesCedars-Sinai Medical CenterChildren's Hospital and Medical CenterChildren's Hospital Medical Center

of AkronChildren's Hospital, IncorporatedChildren's Hospitals and ClinicsCity of Hope National Medical CenterCleveland Clinic Health SystemDeaconess Billings Clinic,

Information Svcs. Dept.Eastern Health System, Inc.Emergency Physicians Medical GroupEmory HealthcareEspirito Santo Saude, SGPS, SAFairviewFred Hutchinson Cancer Research CenterGroup Health CooperativeH. Lee Moffitt Cancer CenterHealth Choice, LLCHealth FirstHennepin County Medical CenterHoly Name HospitalHospital Authority of Hong Kong

Hospital Sisters Health SystemIndian Health ServicesInova Health SystemINSIEL S.p.A.Johns Hopkins HospitalKaiser PermanenteKennedy Health SystemL.A. County Department of

Health ServicesLabCorpLahey ClinicLake Forest HospitalLee Memorial Health SystemLegacy Health SystemLexington Medical CenterLoma Linda University Medical CenterLoyola University Health SystemMagee-Womens HospitalMaria Parham Medical CenterMarquette General Health SystemMayo Clinic/FoundationMedical College of OhioMedicAlert FoundationMedStar Health Information SystemsMemorial Hospital - Colorado SpringsMercy Health PartnersMeridian HealthMeriter Health ServicesMilton S. Hershey Medical CenterMinistry of HealthMoses Cone Health SystemMount Carmel Health SystemNational Cancer Institute Center

for BioinformaticNational Healthcare GroupNCH Healthcare SystemNHS Information AuthorityNHS National Programme for ITNorthwestern Memorial HospitalPark Nicollet Health ServicesPartners HealthCare System, Inc.Pathology Associates Medical LaboratoriesPocono Medical CenterQueensland HealthRamathibodi HospitalRegenstrief Institute, Inc.Regions HospitalRiverside Methodist HospitalsRutland Regional Medical CenterSaint Alphonsus Regional Medical CenterSalud Interactiva, S.A. De C.V.South Bend Medical FoundationSouthern Ohio Medical CenterSouthwest Washington Medical CenterSparrow Health SystemSpartanburg Regional Medical CenterSpectrum Health - Downtown CampusSt. Clare's HospitalSt. Francis Medical Center

St. John Health SystemSt. Luke's Regional Medical CenterSumma Health SystemSun Health CorporationTenet Patient Financial ServicesTexas Children's HospitalThe Children's Hospital of PhiladelphiaThe North Carolina Baptist Hospitals, Inc.Touro InfirmaryTrinity HealthU.S. Department of Defense,

Military Health SystemU.S. Department of Veterans AffairsUNC HealthcareUniversity Hospital (Augusta)University of Chicago Hospitals &

Health SystemsUniversity of Illinois at Chicago

Medical CenterUniversity of Kentucky Chandler

Medical CenterUniversity of Washington, MCISUT Medical Group, Inc.Valley Health SystemVanderbilt University Medical CenterVirtua HealthWakeMedYale New Haven Health ServicesYork Health System...WellSpan Health

Vendors3M Health Information SystemsA4 Health SystemsABELSoft CorporationAdobe Systems IncorporatedAmtelcoApelon, Inc.ArbortextAscential Software Inc.Awarix, Inc.Axolotl CorporationBerdy Medical SystemsBusiness Ranch, Inc.Care Data SystemsCarefx CorporationCegeka Health Care SystemsChart Links, LLCChartWare, Inc.Clinical Computing, Inc.CliniComp, Intl.Computrition, Inc.Cordestin CommunicationsCovansys (India) Pvt. Ltd.Cozum BilgisayerCreative Computer Applications, Inc.

(CCA)CSC Scandihealth A/SCustom Software Systems, Inc.Cypress Corporation



Dairyland Healthcare SolutionsData Innovations, Inc.Data Junction CorporationData Processing S.p.a.Dawning Technologies, Inc.dbMotion Ltd.DeJarnette Research Systems, Inc.Detente Systems Pty LtdDictaphone CorporationdigiChart, Inc.Documentum (division of EMC)Dolbey & CompanyDr. Notes Inc.DREAMS, Digital EMS Project,

Univ of Texas-HoustonEclipsys CorporationEDS CorporationEmageon, Inc.Empower Med, Inc.Epic Systems CorporationESRIExtended Care Information NetworkForward Advantage, Inc.Fox Systems Inc.GE Healthcare Information TechnologiesGreenway Medical Technologies, Inc.Guangzhou Easidata Ltd.Guidant CorporationHAS Solutions Pty LimitedHealth Care Software, Inc.Health Hero NetworkHealth Language, Inc.Health Patterns, LLCHealthcare Management Systems, Inc.HealthCare Synergy, Inc.HealthSlide, Inc.Hewlett-Packard CompanyHill-Rom - NaviCareHill-Rom Air ShieldsHIMS Solutions Inc.Homecare HomebaseHuron Systems, Inc.Hyland SoftwareIBA Health (Asia) Pte. Ltd.ibex Healthdata SystemsIBMIDX Systems CorporationIG ConsultingiMedXIMPAC Medical Systems, Inc.Info WorldInnovision Corp.Integrated Healthware, LLCInterCare.com-dx, Inc.Interfix, LLCInternational Computer Systems (London)

Ltd

InterSystemsIntraNexus, Inc.ItemFieldKestral Computing Pty LtdKryptiq CorporationLandacorpLifeCare Technologies, Inc.LINK Medical Computing, Inc.Liquent, Inc.LMS Medical Systems (Canada) Ltd.LOGICARE CorporationMammography Reporting System, Inc.McKesson Information SolutionsMedEvolve, Inc.Medical Informatics Engineering, Inc.Medical Manager Research &

Development, Inc.MEDICOM Solutions Private LimitedMediNotes CorporationMEDIWARE Information Systems, Inc.MedSelect Inc.Merge eFilmMi-CoMicroFour, Inc.MICROMEDEX, Inc.Microsoft CorporationMIMS, LLCMisys Healthcare SystemsMITEM CorporationMNI - Medicos na Internet,

Saude na Internet, S.A.MPN Software Systems, Inc.MyDocOnline, Inc.NEC America, Inc.NeoTool Development, LLCNextGen Healthcare Information Systems,

Inc.Nodens Technology, LLCNoteworthy Medical Systems, Inc.OB Everywhere, Inc.Occupational Health ResearchOctagon Research SolutionsOmnicell, Inc.Optio Software, Inc.Oracle Corporation - HealthcareOrchard Software CorporationOrion Systems International LtdPathNET ServicesPatient Care Technology SystemsPatientKeeper, Inc.Perceptive Vision, Inc.PHG TechnologiesPhilips Medical SystemsPhysician Micro Systems, Inc.ProVation MedicalQS Technologies, Inc.QS/1 Data Systems

QuadraMed CorporationQuadrat NVQuest Diagnostics, IncorporatedRaining Data CorporationRxHub, LLCSAIC - Science Applications International

Corp.scheduling.comScriptRx, Inc.Sectra North America Inc.SecureWorksSeeBeyond Technology CorporationSegami CorporationSentillion, Inc.Siemens Medical Solutions Health ServicesSobha Renaissance Information

Technology Pvt. LtdSolComSpacelabs MedicalSTI Healthcare, Inc.Stockell Healthcare Systems, Inc.Sun Microsystems, Inc.Suncoast SolutionsSybase, Inc.Synbiotix LtdSysmex America, Inc.Sysmex New Zealand LimitedSystex, Inc.Tesi Elettronica E Sistemi Information

ServicesThe Stellar CorporationThe Wound Healing CenterTheraDoc, Inc.Topsail Technologies, Inc.TOREX-HISCOM BVT-System Technologies, Ltd.UBmatrixUnited Telemanagement CorporationUniversal Hospital Services, Inc.Up To Data Professional ServicesUS-RxUtah Health Information NetworkVISICU, Inc.Viterion TeleHealthcare LLCWellsoft CorporationWyndgate TechnologiesXIFINXPress TechnologiesXTEND Communications Corp.ZOLL Data Systems


26


Architectural Review Board

D. Mead WalkerMead Walker ConsultingPhone: (610) 518-6259Email: [email protected]

Arden Syntax

Robert Jenders M.D.Cedars-Sinai Medical Center/UCLAPhone: (310) 423-2105E-mail: [email protected]

R. Matthew SailorsUniversity of Texas-Houston Phone: (713) 500-6192E-mail: [email protected]

Attachments

Christine StahleckerConsultantPhone: (315) 461-9136E-mail: [email protected]

Penny Sanchez EDS CorporationPhone: (916) [email protected]

Maria WardPricewaterhouseCoopers LLPPhone: (312) 298-2586E-mail: [email protected]

Nancy Wilson-RamonPhone: (310) 614-0879E-mail: [email protected]

Clinical Context Object Workgroup(CCOW)

Barry RoyerSiemens Medical Solutions Health ServicesCorporationPhone: (610) 219-4779E-mail: [email protected]

Michael Russell, M.D.Duke University Medical CenterPhone: (919) 684-2513E-mail: [email protected]

Rob SeligerSentillion, Inc.Phone: (978) 749-0022E-mail: [email protected]

Clinical Decision Support

Bob Greenes, M.D., Ph.D.Partners HealthCare / Brigham & Women's HospitalPhone: (617) 732-6281E-mail: [email protected]

Robert Jenders, M.D.Cedars-Sinai Medical Center/UCLAPhone: (310) 423-2105E-mail: [email protected]

Ian PurvesNewcastle General HospitalPhone: 44-191-243-6173E-mail: [email protected]

R. Matthew SailorsUniversity of Texas-HoustonPhone: (713) 500-6192E-mail: [email protected]

Clinical Genomics

Peter ElkinMayo Clinic/FoundationPhone: (507) 284-1551E-mail: [email protected]

Jill KaufmanIBMPhone: (201) 447-0227E-mail: [email protected]

Scott WhyteCAP Gemini Ernst & Young U.S. LLCPhone: (602) 697-0567E-mail: [email protected]

Clinical Guidelines

Robert Greenes, M.D., Ph.DPartners Healthcare/Brigham & Women’s HospitalPhone: (617) 732-6281E-mail: [email protected]

Samson TuStanford Medical Informatics, Stanford UniversityPhone: (650) 723-6979Email: [email protected]

Community Based Health Services

John FirlMcKesson Information Solutions Phone: (417) 874-4000E-mail: [email protected]

Louis GordonSiemens Medical Solutions Health ServicesCorporationPhone: (814) 944-1651E-mail: [email protected] WalkerDepartment of Human ServicesPhone: 61-3-9616-1471Email: [email protected]

Conformance

Lisa CarnahanNational Institute of Standards and TechnologyPhone: (301) 975-3362E-mail: [email protected]

Jennifer PuyenbroekMcKesson Information SolutionsPhone: (404) 338-3324E-mail: [email protected]

Peter RonteyU.S. Department of Veterans AffairsPhone: (518) 449-0693Email: [email protected]

Control/Query

Grahame GrieveKestral Computing Pty LtdPhone: 61-3-9450-2222E-mail: [email protected]

Mike HendersonEastern InformaticsPhone: (301) 585-5750E-mail: [email protected]

Joann LarsonKaiser PermanentePhone: (925) 926-3011E-mail: [email protected]

Education Committee

Abdul-Malik ShakirShakir Consulting Phone: (909) 596-6790E-mail: [email protected]

Tim BensonAbies [email protected]

Electronic Health Records

Gary DickinsonConsultantPhone: (909) 536-7010E-mail: [email protected]

Linda FischettiU.S. Department of Veterans AffairsPhone: (301)734-0417 Email: [email protected]

Sam HeardOcean InformaticsPhone: 61-889-481-882E-mail: [email protected]

Financial Management

Freida HallVeteran’s Health AdministrationPh: (678) 642-4376Email: [email protected]

Chuck MeyerPhone: (407) 695-8338E-mail: [email protected]

HL7 Technical Committee and Special Interest Group Co-chairs

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28

Michael van CampenHL7 CanadaPhone: (250) 812-7858E-mail:[email protected]

Government Projects

Marco JohnsonU.S. Department of Defense, Health AffairsPhone: (703) 681-5611E-mail: [email protected]

Steven WagnerU.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of CIOPhone: (603) 624-4366E-mail: [email protected]

Imaging Integration

Fred Behlen, Ph.D.LAI TechnologyPhone: (708) 960-4164E-mail: [email protected]

Helmut KoenigSiemens Medical Solutions Health ServicesCorp.Phone: 49-9131-84-3480Email: [email protected]

Implementation Committee

Abdul-Malik ShakirShakir ConsultingPhone: (909) 596-6790Email: [email protected]

Charlie McCayRamsey Systems, Ltd.Phone: 44-1743-232-278Email: [email protected]

International Committee

Affiliate Liaison - Klaus Veil HL7 AustraliaPhone: 61-412-746-457E-mail: [email protected]

HL7 Inc. Liaison - Laura Sato HL7 UKPhone: 44-7733-324338E-mail: [email protected]

Secretary - Jane Howarth HL7 CanadaPhone: 905-717-3717E-mail: [email protected]

Technical - Miroslav Koncar HL7 CroatiaPhone: 38-5136-53479E-mail: [email protected]

Java

Peter HendlerSun Microsystems, Inc.Phone: (510) 765-3077E-mail: [email protected]

Todd FreterSun Microsystems, Inc.Phone: (510) 986-3654E-mail: [email protected]

Laboratory

Louise Brown (interim)TNT Global Systems Phone: 416-460-6195Email: [email protected]

Austin Kreisler (interim)McKesson Information SolutionsPhone: 706-216-6214Email: [email protected]

Laboratory, Automated and Point ofCare Testing

Thomas NorgallUniversity ErlangenPhone: 49-9131-776-5113Email: [email protected]

Manish NarangeJNJ at Johnson & JohnsonPhone: (585) 453-3244E-mail: [email protected]

Robert UleskiRobert Uleski ConsultingPhone: (317) 850-4803E-mail: [email protected]

Marketing Committee

Landen BainPhone: (919) 819-7052E-mail: [email protected]

Rene Spronk HL7 The [email protected]

Medical Records/InformationManagement

Nancy LeRoyU.S. Department of Veterans AffairsPhone: 315-425-4645Email: [email protected]

Wayne TracyHealth Patterns, LLCPhone: (913) 685-0600E-mail: [email protected]

Medication Information

Julie JamesBlue Wave InformaticsPhone: 44-0-1392-811961E-mail: [email protected]

Peter MacIssacHL7 AustraliaPhone: 61-2-6289-7494E-mail: [email protected]

Scott RobertsonKaiser PermanentePhone: (626) 229-6624E-mail: [email protected]

Modeling and Methodology

George “Woody” Beeler Jr., Ph.D.Beeler Consulting LLCPhone: (507) 254-4810E-mail: [email protected]

Jane CurryHealth Information StrategiesPhone: (780) 459-8560E-mail: [email protected]

Anne HueberPathology Associates Medical LaboratoriesPhone: (509) 755-8810Email: [email protected]

Abdul-Malik ShakirShakir Consulting Phone: (909) 596-6790E-mail: [email protected]

Orders/Observations

Hans BuitendijkSiemens Medical Solutions Health ServicesCorporationPhone: (610) 219-2087E-mail: [email protected]

Austin KreislerMcKesson Information SolutionsPhone: (706) 216-6214E-mail: [email protected]

Gunther Schadow, M.D.Regenstrief Institute, Inc.Phone: (317) 630-7960E-mail: [email protected]

Jeff SutherlandPatientKeeper, Inc.Phone: (617) 987-0394E-mail: [email protected]

Patient Administration

Jean FerraroMcKesson Information SolutionsPhone: (631) 630-2266E-mail: [email protected]

Gregg SeppalaU.S. Department of Veterans AffairsPhone: (703) 824-0995E-mail: [email protected]

Klaus VeilHL7 Systems & ServicesPhone: 61-412-746-6457E-mail: [email protected]

Patient Care

Dan Russler, M.D.McKesson Information SolutionsPhone: (404) 338-3418E-mail: [email protected]

TC and SIG Co-chairs, continued


Judith Warren, Ph.D.University of KansasPhone: (913) 588-4286E-mail: [email protected]

Patient Safety

Susan BoundsFood and Drug AdministrationPhone: 301-594-3880Email: [email protected]

Ali RashideeAgency for Healthcare Research and QualityPhone: (404) 498-1103E-mail: [email protected]

Pediatric Data Standards

David Classen, M.D.First Consulting GroupPhone: (801) 532-3633E-mail: [email protected]

Andrew Spooner, M.D.University of Tennessee - MemphisPhone: (901) 572-3292E-mail: [email protected]

Personnel Management

Charlie MeadOracle Corporation – HealthcarePhone: (510) 541-8224Email: [email protected]

Jean SpohnGroup Health CooperativePhone: (206) 448-2843E-mail: [email protected]

Process Improvement Committee

Freida HallVeteran’s Health AdministrationPh: (678) 642-4376Email: [email protected]

Ken RubinU.S. Department of Veterans Affairs-EDSPhone: (703) 845-3827E-mail: [email protected]

Public Health and EmergencyResponse (PHER)

Rita Altamore (Interim)Washington State Department of [email protected]

Jim Case (Interim)American Veterinary Medical [email protected]

Daniel Pollock (Interim)Centers for Disease Control and PreventionPhone: (404) 639-7715Email: [email protected]

Publishing Committee

Joann LarsonKaiser PermanentePhone: (925) 926-3011E-mail: [email protected]

Helen StevensHL7 CanadaPhone: (250) 888-5824E-mail: [email protected]

Klaus VeilHL7 Systems & ServicesPhone: 61-412-746-457Email: [email protected]

Regulated Clinical ResearchInformation Management

Randy Levin, M.D.Food and Drug AdministrationPhone: (301) 594-5411E-mail: [email protected]

Linda QuadeEli Lilly and CompanyPhone: (317) 276-9874E-mail: [email protected]

Barbara Tardiff, M.D.CDISC – Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.Phone: (914) 345-7605E-mail: [email protected]

Scheduling and Logistics

Anita BensonDataScenePhone: (860) 567-5523E-mail: [email protected]

Jane FoardMcKesson Information SolutionsPhone: (847) 495-1289E-mail: [email protected]

Security and Accountability

Bernd Blobel, Ph.D.The University of MagdeburgPhone: 49-3916713542E-mail: [email protected]

Glen MarshallSiemens Medical Solutions Health ServicesPhone; (610) 219-3938E-mail: [email protected]

Structured Documents

Liora AlschulerThe Word ElectricPhone: (802) 785-2623E-mail: [email protected]

Calvin BeebeMayo Clinic/FoundationPhone: (507) 284-3827E-mail: [email protected]

Sandra BoyerPhone: (949) 499-2598E-mail: [email protected]

Bob Dolin, M.D.Kaiser PermanentePhone: (714) 562-3434E-mail: [email protected]

Templates

Peter ElkinMayo Clinic/FoundationPhone: (507) 284-1551E-mail: [email protected]

Martin Kernberg, M.D.Medical Informatics Project, UCSFPhone: (415) 861-0781E-mail: [email protected]

Angelo Rossi MoriCNRPhone: + 39 - 06 -86090250E-mail: [email protected]

Tooling Committee

Laura Sato (HL7 UK) NHS National Programme for ITPh: 44-7733-324338Email: [email protected]

Vocabulary

Christopher Chute, M.D.Mayo Clinic/FoundationPhone: (507) 284-5506E-mail: [email protected]

Paul FrosdickNHS Information AuthorityPhone: 44-121-3330331Email: [email protected]

Stanley Huff, M.D.Intermountain Health CarePhone: (801) 442-4885E-mail: [email protected]

Ted KleinKlein Consulting, Inc.Phone: (631) 924-6922Email: [email protected]

XML

Paul KnappCanadian Dental AssociationPhone: (604) 987-3313Email: [email protected]

Charlie McCayRamsey Systems, Ltd.Phone: 44-1743-232-278Email: [email protected]

TC and SIG Co-chairs, continued

29


30

HL7 FACILITATORSModeling andMethodology Facilitators

George "Woody" Beeler Jr., Ph.D.Committees: Facilitator-At-LargeBeeler Consulting, LLCPhone: (507) 254-4810E-mail: [email protected]

Anita BensonCommittee: Scheduling and LogisticsData ScenePhone: (860) 567-5523E-mail: [email protected]

Jane CurryCommittee: InternationalHealth Information StrategiesPhone: (780) 459-8560E-mail: [email protected]

Norman DaoustCommittee: Patient AdministrationDaoust AssociatesPhone: (617) 491-7424Email: [email protected]

Robert Dolin, M.D. Committees: Medical Records/ InformationManagement; Structured DocumentsKaiser PermanentePhone: (714) 562-3456E-mail: [email protected]

Jane FoardCommittee: Scheduling and LogisticsMcKesson Information SolutionsPhone: (847) 485-1289Email: [email protected]

Heath FrankelCommittee: Patient CareMedical Communications AssociatesPhone: 61-8-8370-2313E-mail: [email protected]

Hugh GloverCommittee: Medication InformationBlue Wave InformaticsPhone: 44-0-1392-811961E-mail:[email protected]

Ted KleinCommittee: VocabularyKlein Consulting, Inc.Phone: (631) 924-3904E-mail: [email protected]

Austin KreislerCommittee: Orders/ObservationsMcKesson Information SolutionsPhone: (706) 216-6214E-mail: [email protected]

Lloyd McKenzieCommittee: Facilitator-At-Large LM&A Consulting Ltd.Phone: (780) 231-4528Email: [email protected]

Charlie MeadCommittee: Decision SupportOracle Corporation – HealthcarePhone: (510) 541-8224Email: [email protected]

Dale NelsonCommittee: CMETSZed-Logic Informatics, LLCPhone: (925) 984-6048E-mail: [email protected]

Craig ParkerCommittee: Clinical Decision SupportIntermountain Health CarePhone: (801) 442-4398Email: [email protected]

Jennifer PuyenbroekCommittee: ConformanceMcKesson Information SolutionsPhone: (404) 338-3324E-mail: [email protected]

Linda QuadeCommittee: Regulated Clinical ResearchInformation ManagementEli Lilly and CompanyPhone: (317) 276-9874E-mail: [email protected]

Gunther SchadowCommittee: Orders and ObservationRegenstrief Institute, Inc.Phone: (317) 630-7960Email: [email protected]

Amnon ShaboCommittee: Clinical GenomicsIBM Research Lab in HaifaPhone: 972-4-8296211Email: [email protected]

Abdul-Malik ShakirCommittee: Modeling and MethodologyShakir Consulting, LLCPhone: (909) 596-6790E-mail: [email protected]

Jean SpohnCommittee: Personnel ManagementGroup Health CooperativePhone: (206) 448-2843E-mail: [email protected]

Michael van CampenCommittee: Financial ManagementHealthNet/BCPhone: (250) 812-7858E-mail: [email protected]

Vocabulary FacilitatorsRaymond AllerCommittee: Government ProjectsClinical InformaticsPhone: (760) 295-2908E-mail: [email protected]

Kay AvantCommittee: Patient CareNorth American Nursing Diagnosis Assn.Phone: (254) 772-5572E-mail: [email protected]

Sandy BoyerCommittee: Medical Records InformationManagement; Structured DocumentsPhone: (949) 499-2598E-mail: [email protected]

Carol BeanCommittee: Regulated Clinical ResearchInformation ManagementNational Center for Research Resources, NIH Phone: (301) 435-0755Email: [email protected]

Anita BensonCommittee: Scheduling and LogisticsDataScenePhone: (860) 567-5523Email: [email protected]

Paul BiondichCommittee: Pediatric Data StandardsRegenstrief Institute for Health CarePhone: (317) 630-8134Email: [email protected]

Chris ChuteCommittee: Clinical GenomicsMayo Clinic/FoundationPhone: (507) 284-5506Email: [email protected]

Kathleen ConnorCommittee: Financial ManagementFox Systems Inc.Phone: (480) 423-8184Email: [email protected]

Mark DiehlCommittee: Government ProjectsCSC Global HealthcarePhone: (301) 624-1779E-mail: [email protected]

Jane FoardCommittee: Scheduling and LogisticsMcKesson Information SolutionsPhone: (847) 485-1289E-mail: [email protected]

Hugh GloverCommittee: CMETSBlue Wave InformaticsPhone: 44-0-1392-811961E-mail:[email protected]

W. Edward Hammond, Ph.DCommittee: TemplatesDuke University Medical CenterPhone: (919) 383-3555E-mail: [email protected]

Stan HuffCommittee: VocabularyIntermountain Health CarePhone: (801) 442-4885Email: [email protected]

Julie JamesCommittee: Medication InformationBlue Wave InformaticsPhone: 44-0-1392-811961Email:[email protected]

Ted KleinCommittee: Modeling and MethodologyKlein Consulting, Inc.Phone: (631) 924-6922Email: [email protected]

Peter MacIsaacCommittee: InternationalHL7 Australia, Dept of Health-Aged CarePhone: 61-2-6289-7494Email: [email protected]

Nancy OrvisCommittees: Government Project; PatientAdministrationU.S. Department of Defense, Health AffairsPhone: (703) 681-5611E-mail: [email protected]

Sarah RyanCommittee: Government ProjectsPhone: (281) 244-1637Email: [email protected]

Gunther Schadow, M.D.Committee: Orders & ObservationsRegenstrief Institute, Inc.Phone: (317) 630-7960Email: [email protected]

Harold SolbrigCommittee: Modeling and MethodologyMayo Clinic/ FoundationPhone: (507) 284-0360E-mail: [email protected]

Harry SolomonCommittee: Image ManagementGE Medical Systems - InformationTechnologiesPhone: (847) 704-8790Email: [email protected]

Jean SpohnCommittee: Personnel ManagementGroup Health CooperativePhone: (206) 448-2843E-mail: [email protected]

Wayne TracyCommittee: Medical Records/InformationManagementHealth Patterns, LLCPhone: (913) 685-0600Email: [email protected]

International Liaisons

Helen StevensCommittee: Orders/ObservationsHL7 CanadaPhone: (250) 888-5824E-mail: [email protected]

Irma JongeneelHL7 The NetherlandsPhone: 31-347-327733E-mail: [email protected]


Executive Director

31


2004 HL7 BOARD OF DIRECTORSSecretary

Charles "Chuck" MeyerPhone: (407) 695-8338Email: [email protected]

George “Woody” Beeler Jr., Ph.D.Beeler Consulting LLCPh: (507) 254-4810E-mail: [email protected]

Immediate Past Chair

Wes RishelGartnerPhone: (510) 522-8135E-mail: [email protected]

Daniel Jernigan, M.D.Centers for Disease Control and PreventionPhone (404) 639-2621E-mail: [email protected]

Jane CurryHealth Information StrategiesPhone: (780) 459-8560Email: [email protected]

William “Ted” KleinKlein Consulting, Inc.Phone: (631) 924-6922E-mail: [email protected]

Directors-At-Large

Technical CommitteeChair

TechnicalCommitteeVice-Chair

John QuinnCAP Gemini Ernst & Young U.S. LLCPhone: (216) 583-1242E-mail: [email protected]

W. Edward Hammond, Ph.D.Duke University Medical CenterPhone: (919) 383-3555E-mail: [email protected]

Klaus VeilHL7 Systems & ServicesPhone: 61-412-746-457E-mail: [email protected]

Mark McDougallExecutive Director, HL7Phone: (734) 677-7777Email: [email protected]

Chair

Mark ShafarmanOracle Corporartion – HealthcarePhone: (415) 491-8104E-mail: [email protected]

Charles Mead, M.D., M.S.C.Oracle Corporation – HealthcarePhone: (510) 541-8224Email: [email protected]

Hans BuitendijkSiemens Medical Solutions HealthServices CorporationPhone: (610) 219-2087Email: hans.buitendijk @siemens.com

Abdul-Malik ShakirShakir ConsultingPhone: (909) 596-6790E-mail: ShakirConsulting @cs.com

Treasurer

William R. Braithwaite, M.D., Ph.D.Healthcare ConsultantPhone: (202) 543-6937Email: [email protected]

InternationalRepresentative

Kai Heitmann, M.D.University Hospital of ColognePhone: 49-221-478-6507Email: [email protected]

18thAnnualPlenaryandWorkingGroupMeetingAtlanta, Georgia

Sept. 26 - Oct 1, 2004

Sheraton Atlanta Hotel

Early Bird Registration & HotelCutoff - August 25, 2004