HL7 fulfills promise to make intellectual property freely available
As promised last fall, Health Level Seven International (HL7) made much of its intellectual property freely available under licensing terms. The policy became effective April 1, 2013, and includes all currently published standards, implementation guides and more as determined on a case-by-case basis. “By making our standards freely available, we hope to accelerate the evolution of healthcare information exchange at the very basic levels, and ultimately to impact wellness and healthcare delivery on a global scale. This decision has met with overwhelming support from members and other stakeholders,” said Charles Jaffe, MD, PhD, HL7 CEO. In conjunction with freely licensing its IP, HL7 also plans to revise its membership model later this year. In addition to the existing benefits of membership, there will be new benefits and services. Many of these are designed to assist with implementation and are currently under development. They may include:
- extensive expansion of deeply discounted or free education programs and training;
- certification of HL7 conformance;
- a professionally supported Help Desk; and
- enhanced testing of individual expertise in HL7 development, training, and implementation.
Beth Walsh, Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.