BACKGROUND
Aging Technical Standards
Immunization Information Systems (IIS) rely on robust data exchange with many partners, including clinical care sites, schools, payers, and other agencies. This interoperability is enabled by the use of shared standards developed collaboratively and promulgated by Health Level Seven (HL7®), an ANSI-accredited standards development organization.
RICAIR, the IIS in the State of Rhode Island which has been operating since 1997, implemented the prevailing technical standards some years ago but found that newer standards being promoted within the clinical care community offered robust new capabilities.
APPROACH
A New Standards Architecture
In 2023, HLN began implementing interoperability standards based on the HL7® Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, or FHIR®, in RICAIR. These new standards are being used in two ways: first, to update the way that software applications interact with the RICAIR database; and second to enable new types of interoperability such as “bulk” query for records (i.e., requests for data for groups of individuals, not one person at a time).
The more standards are used, the more they become entrenched. But newer standards provide improved performance and new functionality. By leveraging FHIR®, initially for internal operations as well as new data exchange opportunities, Rhode Island is able to start down the path of migrating to newer standards without jeopardizing the integrity of ongoing operations.
RESOURCES
- AIRA 2024 presentation: IIS on FHIR: A New Era of IIS Interoperability
- HIMSS25 Interop+SMART Experience Pavilion demo
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