ABSTRACT
Early development of the Health Level 7 (HL7) standard started in 1987 focusing on the communication of clinical data between hospital information systems. The name HL7 refers to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model (ISO/IEC, 1994) for computer network protocols and its seventh level termed the application layer. HL7 is an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accredited nonprofit standards developing organization. The standard has gained acceptance internationally with a growing number of HL7 international affiliate member organizations promoting the standard and working on national adaptation strategies.
