Newbies guide to HL7 Committees

I'm an HL7 Mentor.  That means I get to wear a red ribbon that says so at the working group meeting, and make a point to talk to people who have the first timer's ribbon as the meeting.  Being a mentor at the meetings is easy, because I know my way around the meeting, and can make introductions and get to tell people where to go (to find out more about ___).

But I also get asked quite often how to get involved in HL7 activities.  Usually the question comes in via e-mail or through this blog, and is generally in the form:  How do I find out what is going on, or who  do I talk to?  Often the question doesn't include "about X", and so I have to follow up with "What are you interested in?" before I can answer the question.

Here are a few tips about how to figuring out what is up.  There are about 40-odd work groups in HL7 (other SDOs call these technical committees).  Most work group names are fairly self explanatory to initiates, but novices are often challenged to find the right work groups.

In the lists below, think about filling in the blanks in this sentence:

I'm an ___ specializing in ___.

Using the answer in the first blank, find your general case in the headings below.  Under the headings are the committees that you might be interested just based on your general category.  Underneath those headings are specializations, which also indicate work groups that might be of interest based on general category and specialty.

A couple of notes on committee names and why they show up where they do:
EHR deals with functional requirements for health records, be they EHR, PHR or otherwise, which is why PHR vendors might find EHR interesting.  If you are interested in FHIR, you want to check out MnM who is running that project.

A final note:  This should be turned into an interactive form, and it should cover IHE, S&I Framework and many other activities.  Oh boy, another great summer project for someone with time on their hands.

Care Provider

·         Clinical Interoperability Council

·         Patient Care

·         Electronic Health Records

Anesthesia

·         Generation of Anesthesia Standards

Clinical Decision Support

·         Clinical Decision Support

·         Arden Syntax

Clinical Research

·         Regulated Clinical Research Information Management

Emergency Medicine

·         Emergency Care

·         Public Health and Emergency Response

Genetics/Genomics

·         Clinical Genomics

Informatics

·         Patient Care

·         Vocabulary

Laboratory

·         Orders and Observations

Long Term Care

·         Community Based Collaborative Care

·         Patient Care
Nursing

·         Community Based Collaborative Care

·         Patient Care

Pathology

·         Anatomic Pathology

·         Orders and Observations

Pediatrics

·         Child Health

Pharmacy

·         Pharmacy

Public Health

·         Public Health and Emergency Response

·         Orders and Observations

Quality Measurement

·         Structured Documents

·         Clinical Decision Support

Radiology

·         Imaging Integration

Health Information Management Professional

Informatics

·         Patient Care

·         Vocabulary

Medical Records

·         Structured Documents

·         Templates

·         Electronic Health Records

Privacy

·         Community Based Collaborative Care

·         Security

Quality Measurement

·         Structured Documents

·         Clinical Decision Support

Revenue Cycle Management

·         Patient Administration/Financial Management

·         Attachments

Security

·         Security

·         Community Based Collaborative Care

Geek

Architecture

·         Modeling and Methodology

·         Services Oriented Architecture

Java

·         RIM Based Application Architecture

·         Tooling

Messaging

·         Infrastructure and Messaging

Modeling and UML

·         Modeling and Methodology

Open Source

·         RIM Based Application Architecture

·         Tooling

Privacy

·         Community Based Collaborative Care

·         Security

Security

·         Security

·         Community Based Collaborative Care

SOA

·         Services Oriented Architecture

Web 2.0

·         Modeling and Methodology

·         Infrastructure and Messaging

·         Implementable Technology Specifications

·         Services Oriented Architecture

Testing and Validation

·         Conformance & Guidance for Implementation/Testing

XML

·         Structured Documents

·         Implementable Technology Specifications

·         Templates

Health IT Vendor

Clinical Trials

·         Regulated Clinical Research Information Management

EHRs

·         Electronic Health Records

·         Structured Documents

·         Orders and Observations

·         Public Health and Emergency Response

·         Clinical Decision Support

·         Clinical Context Object Workgroup

Laboratory Information System

·         Orders and Observations

Practice Management System

·         Electronic Health Records

·         Clinical Context Object Workgroup

Revenue Cycle Management

·         Patient Administration/Financial Management

·         Attachments

RIS/PACS

·         Imaging Integration

·         Clinical Context Object Workgroup

Medical Device

·         Health Care Devices

·         Patient Safety

Mobile Health

·         Mobile Health

·         Modeling and Methodology

Patient Registration

·         Patient Administration/Financial Management

Personal Health Record

·         Electronic Health Records

Insurer/Payer

Financial Management

·         Patient Administration/Financial Management, Attachments

HIPAA Transactions

·         Attachments

Patient Administration

·         Patient Administration/Financial Management

Quality Measurement

·         Structured Documents

·         Clinical Decision Support

Pharma

·         Regulated Clinical Research Information Management
·         Pharmacy