FHIR and Emerging Standards

This page features information on the Health Level Seven (HL7) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard and other emerging standards to support the interoperability of immunization information. IIS community members are encouraged to consider how FHIR and other emerging standards could potentially support new and ongoing interoperability needs and challenges. Get involved in workgroup discussions and access associated resources using the following links.

Emerging Standards Resource Repository

Emerging Standards Development Stages for Tracking

Visit the HL7 Confluence repository Emerging Standards for Immunization page for ideas and projects related to using FHIR and other emerging standards to support immunization interoperability.

This collection features the stages for tracking scope and types of work related to emerging standards and the associated topic neighborhoods, such as Consumer Access; it serves as a central location for topic-based materials, information, and current work efforts.

FHIR and Emerging Standards Workgroups

This is a brief list of technical workgroup meetings during which the use of FHIR and emerging standards as they relate to public health and immunizations is discussed. To learn more, click one of the links below to review resources and get connected.

Helios FHIR Accelerator: A joint initiative among HL7 International, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ASTP/ONC) aimed at accelerating the use of the FHIR standard to support public health
Bulk Data: A priority area of the Helios Accelerator to make data in public health systems (such as IIS) accessible in bulk to authorized users
Public Health Work Group: An HL7 workgroup to discuss the use of interoperability standards to support public health
Immunization Focus Group: A sub-group of the Public Health workgroup to discuss the use of FHIR and other emerging standards to support immunization interoperability

FHIR Specifications

Access specifications for FHIR

Base Specifications

FHIR Specification: Base platform specification for the use of FHIR to support interoperability. Release 5.0 (R5) is the current published version. See also previous releases.
US Core FHIR Implementation Guide and Core Profiles: Defines constraints on the FHIR platform specification to support U.S.-based interoperability efforts. Aligns with the U.S. Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI). Based on FHIR version R4.

Implementation Guides

Bulk Data Access Implementation Guide: Defines a standardized, FHIR-based approach for exporting bulk data from a FHIR server to a preauthorized client. While not specific to immunizations, this IG provides the framework to support bulk access to IIS data.
Immunization Decision Support Forecast (ImmDS) FHIR Implementation Guide: Supports the exchange of immunization clinical decision support (evaluated immunization history and forecast) between a health information system containing immunization information and a clinical decision support (CDS) engine.

Questions?

Do you have questions about FHIR and/or other emerging standards for immunization? Reach out via AIRA’s online form.