Why Do You Need a Health Data Archival Solution That Is FHIR Native?

As healthcare technology continues to evolve, the need for efficient and secure management of health data becomes increasingly important. One key aspect of this is health data archival.

Health organizations must maintain patient data for extended periods, often decades. In addition, there is a growing demand for this data to be shared across different healthcare providers and systems.

This is where the need for FHIR^® compatibility comes in.

FHIR is a standard developed by Health Level Seven International (HL7) to facilitate interoperability between different healthcare systems. First drafted in 2011 and introduced in 2014, it has been created on the backbone of the previous standards - HL7 v2, CDA (Clinical Document Architecture), and primarily HL7 v3.

Today, FHIR^® is an open standard that has made the exchange of data for new legacy systems and apps easier than before.

So, why should you store your health data in FHIR format?

1. Interoperability:

A FHIR native solution allows for seamless integration with other FHIR-compliant systems. This means data can be shared easily with different healthcare providers, regulatory bodies, governmental organizations, and custom-made applications with minimal modifications. This is particularly important in the context of health data archival, as it can help ensure that important health information is preserved and directly accessible for a variety of uses.

The SMART on FHIR format provides a standardized way for apps to access and use health data, reducing the time and effort required to develop and maintain interfaces between different healthcare systems and applications. This allows for faster and more efficient data exchange.

2. Government regulatory requirement:

The various regulations implemented by the government to ensure the security, privacy, and interoperability of health data entail use of FHIR as the data exchange format and mechanism. By storing data in FHIR format, healthcare organizations can ensure ready compliance with regulatory requirements related to data format and content.

The various regulations implemented by the government to ensure the security, privacy, and interoperability of health data entail use of FHIR as the data exchange format and mechanism. By storing data in FHIR format, healthcare organizations can ensure ready compliance with regulatory requirements related to data format and content.

3. Flexibility:

FHIR supports a wide range of healthcare data, including clinical data, administrative data, and patient-generated data. A FHIR native solution can easily handle these different types of data. It also ensures the archived data remains accessible, usable, and relevant over time. Moreover, the extensibility approach in FHIR allows it to store any kind of unforeseen data from different systems and allows for customization based on the specific needs of the organization. All this makes FHIR a particularly robust choice for a data archive.

4. Standardization and Consistency

Using the FHIR format to archive health data helps in promoting data standardization and consistency. By using a common format for archiving health data, organizations can ensure that the data is stored in a consistent manner, which helps reduce errors and inconsistencies over time.

5. Security:

A FHIR native solution provides a range of security features and protocols that help to protect health data from unauthorized access, disclosure, and tampering. These features include data encryption, access controls, and auditing capabilities, all of which ensure archived data remains secure and confidential over time. This is essential for maintaining patient trust, improving healthcare outcomes, and protecting the legal and financial interests of healthcare organizations.

In conclusion, having a health data archival solution that is FHIR compatible is essential. Having an FHIR native archive makes it easier and more efficient to store a variety of data and readily share it with other providers, regulatory bodies, or custom-built apps while also ensuring the highest level of security. This results not only in better patient outcomes but also improved healthcare delivery.