Healthcare Standards Implementation
Healthcare interoperability standards exist to solve hard problems: clinical data exchange, semantic consistency, terminology binding, imaging workflows. But knowing a standard exists and knowing how to implement it correctly are very different things. We help teams do both.
Where standards projects go wrong
Most standards-related problems are not about the standards themselves. They are about how teams approach them.
Wrong standard for the problem
openEHR, FHIR, HL7 v2, CDA, and DICOM each solve different problems. They are largely complementary, not interchangeable. Choosing the wrong one — or trying to use one standard for everything — produces unnecessary complexity and integration failures that are hard to diagnose.
Partial implementation
Standards are precise. Implementing 80% of a specification and calling it "FHIR-compliant" or "openEHR-conformant" works until a partner system runs a conformance test or exercises a path your implementation never covered. Gaps found during procurement or go-live are expensive to fix.
Standards knowledge in one person
Standards expertise is hard to build. When the one team member who understands openEHR or FHIR leaves, the organization loses the ability to extend, debug, or audit its own implementation. That dependency is a risk that compounds over time.
How we help
We work across the full lifecycle of a standards implementation — from selecting the right standard to validating that what was built actually conforms to it.
Standards Selection and Advisory
Before committing to a standard, we help you understand what each one does, what problem it is designed to solve, and where the boundaries between them are. We analyze your project requirements and recommend which standards to use, where they fit in your architecture, and which ones to avoid for your specific use case.
Standards Implementation
We design and implement the standards layer in your system — whether that means exposing a FHIR API, building an openEHR-conformant data layer, integrating HL7 v2 message handling, or adding SNOMED CT terminology binding. We work with your team or deliver a complete implementation, with documentation and test coverage.
Conformance Review
If your system already implements a standard but you are not confident it is correct — or a partner has flagged gaps — we review the implementation against the specification. We identify what is missing, what is wrong, and what the priority order for fixes should be. We deliver a written report your team can act on.
Training and Coaching
We offer structured training on openEHR, HL7 FHIR, and related standards for development teams and architects. We also provide ongoing coaching during implementation projects — so your team builds real expertise, not just a dependency on us.
Standards we work with
These are the standards we implement, teach, and advise on across healthcare projects.
openEHR
A vendor-neutral standard for clinical data representation and persistence. Defines archetypes, templates, and the EHR information model. Used for building Clinical Data Repositories (CDRs) that separate data structure from application logic.
HL7 FHIR
The current HL7 standard for health data exchange via REST APIs. Defines resources, profiles, implementation guides, and a terminology service model. Widely used for app integration, patient access APIs, and regulatory compliance.
HL7 v2.x
The most widely deployed messaging standard in healthcare. Used for real-time exchange of admission, discharge, lab, and pharmacy events between hospital systems. Despite its age, it remains the dominant integration protocol in most hospital environments.
HL7 CDA
The HL7 Clinical Document Architecture defines a standard structure for clinical documents such as discharge summaries, referral letters, and care plans. Still required in many national health programs and cross-border exchange frameworks, particularly in Europe and Latin America.
DICOM
The standard for medical imaging — how images are stored, transmitted, and displayed across imaging systems, PACS, and clinical workstations. We advise on DICOM integration within broader HIS architectures that include radiology or pathology workflows.
SNOMED CT & LOINC
Terminology standards used to encode clinical concepts, observations, and lab results in a consistent, machine-readable way. Required for semantic interoperability — so systems can exchange data that means the same thing to both sides.
Do you have any questions?
Let us know how we can help you.