In an HL7 world survey of FHIR improvement uncovers the important thing drivers and chronic challenges influencing world adoption, in addition to probably the most distinguished use instances.
In 2025, HL7 Worldwide and Firely partnered for the third yr in a row to conduct a world on-line survey geared toward gaining deeper insights into the present state and development of FHIR adoption. In the end, 82 responses have been collected from 52 distinct nations.
In an Oct. 16 webinar, Diego Kaminker, HL7’s deputy chief requirements implementation officer, reviewed the findings. He famous that the use instances talked about by probably the most respondents embody prescriptions/pharmacy (39), terminology (34), diagnostic orders/experiences (29), doc change (28), referrals/continuity of care (28) and immunizations (26).
“The shock right here is that diagnostic orders and experiences seems earlier than doc change and referrals and affected person entry,” Kaminker mentioned. “One can suppose that many of the nations are giving sufferers entry to their very own knowledge, and we expect that many of the initiatives all over the world change diagnostic orders and experiences utilizing v2 or one thing like that. However that is altering lastly. I assumed it will be altering 10 years in the past or 5 years in the past, however lastly we’re seeing diagnostic orders and experiences because the third use case that’s transferring ahead.”
Among the many 63 respondents who mentioned they have been conscious of profitable FHIR use instances of their nation, 56 cited the primary achievement being improved entry to data.
Different single mentions have been as follows:
1. Improved high quality of information, use of terminology
2. Get High quality Knowledge for Evaluation and Secondary use
3. Analysis
4. Quicker integration with care supplier methods
5. Collaboration
6. Improved timeliness of care
7. Improved public well being reporting
Among the many 82 respondents, the three teams most frequently cited as adopting FHIR have been EHR distributors (60), care suppliers (42) and app builders (37). In step with 2024 and 2023, EHR distributors stay probably the most usually cited group.
In a multiple-choice query, the survey requested respondents to call the primary drivers for FHIR adoption of their nation. Respondents most frequently talked about Innovation (52) and Regulation and grants (52). Among the many respondents who mentioned there’s regulation in place of their nation, the bulk (47 of 64, or 73%) mentioned FHIR is both mandated or is being suggested of their nation’s most vital regulation that prescribes using requirements in digital well being knowledge change.
In 2025, 39 of 82 respondents mentioned there aren’t any authorities funds out there of their respective nations to stimulate the adoption of FHIR, a barely larger proportion than in 2024 (15 of 38). HL7 mentioned this implies the prevalence of presidency funds out there for FHIR adoption could also be lowering, or the respondents should not conscious of the funds.
Requested to call the most important challenges for FHIR adoption of their nation, lack of FHIR data was cited by nearly all of respondents (59 of 82) as the most important problem for FHIR adoption, which is in line with earlier findings. Different challenges have been talked about by virtually an equal variety of respondents: Unclear advantages (35), Modifications in political route (34), Excessive funding value (33) and unclear rules (33).
Specializing in developments within the U.S. market, Kaminker mentioned that HL7 is engaged on one other FHIR accelerator known as Gizmo that entails medical gadget interoperability. “We’ll deal with creating change for any gadget. It’s a broad definition. It may very well be one thing within the hospital, one thing within the lab — any gadget will probably be lined by this accelerator,” he mentioned. “We are also beginning to consider a brand new accelerator on high quality measures for subsequent yr.”
The FHIR accelerator program seeks to hurry the event and availability of FHIR to ship higher knowledge that results in higher well being outcomes. Different accelerators embody the Argonaut Challenge, Carin Alliance, Codex, Da Vinci, the Gravity Challenge, Helios and Vulcan.
Kaminker additionally introduced up the imaginative and prescient of the CMS interoperability pledge to speed up open standard-based knowledge change and create what they name CMS-aligned networks to place sufferers and suppliers first. The aim is to offer sufferers entry to all digital and medical data via functions of your alternative. He famous that a number of well being knowledge networks have agreed to do that, as have 11 well being methods and suppliers masking tens of millions of sufferers, seven EHR distributors, and 30 patient-facing app firms. A core requirement is that every one networks should decide to help and implement FHIR APIs, and the compliance deadline is July 4, 2026. “Attention-grabbing instances in the event that they do all of it,” he mentioned. “It’s a pledge.”
