ANN ARBOR, Mich., USA - Oct. 13, 2010 - Health Level Seven® International (HL7®), the global authority for interoperability and standards in healthcare information technology with members in 55 countries, announced today that it has signed a two-year agreement with the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) to continue to collaborate to help create standards for use in healthcare devices.
Under the agreement, IEEE-SA is an official Associate of HL7, allowing each organization the opportunity to participate in their respective meetings and to hold joint meetings toward the development of standards for connectivity of medical devices. The agreement also allows for joint projects to be undertaken by the two organizations.
"Medical device communications are critical to the effectiveness of the devices transporting data to healthcare professionals," said Charles Jaffe, MD, PhD, CEO of HL7 International. "Collaboration with IEEE has always yielded remarkable benefit to patients. As we move forward in the next decade, continued coordination will prove invaluable to the patient and caregiver alike."
"The relationship between IEEE-SA and HL7 has already benefitted the medical community through the development of the IEEE 11073TM family of standards, which relate to communication between medical and health devices," said Judith Gorman, Managing Director, IEEE Standards Association. "We look forward to further development in this field, which would not have been possible without the participation of HL7."
About Health Level Seven International (HL7)
Founded in 1987, Health Level Seven International is the global authority for healthcare Information interoperability and standards with affiliates established in more than 30 countries. HL7 is a non-profit, ANSI accredited standards development organization dedicated to providing a comprehensive framework and related standards for the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information that supports clinical practice and the management, delivery and evaluation of health services. HL7's more than 2,300 members represent approximately 500 corporate members, which include more than 90 percent of the information systems vendors serving healthcare. HL7 collaborates with other standards developers and provider, payer, philanthropic and government agencies at the highest levels to ensure the development of comprehensive and reliable standards and successful interoperability efforts.
HL7's endeavors are sponsored, in part, by the support of its benefactors: Abbott; Accenture; Booz Allen Hamilton; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Duke Translational Medicine Institute (DTMI); Eclipsys Corporation; Epic Systems Corporation; European Medicines Agency; the Food and Drug Administration; GE Healthcare Information Technologies; GlaxoSmithKline; Intel Corporation; IBM; InterSystems Corporation; Kaiser Permanente; Lockheed Martin; McKesson Provider Technology; Microsoft Corporation; NHS Connecting for Health; NICTIZ National Healthcare; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation; Oracle Corporation; Partners HealthCare System, Inc.; Pfizer, Inc.; Philips Healthcare; Quest Diagnostics Inc.; Siemens Healthcare; St. Jude Medical; Thomson Reuters; the U.S. Department of Defense, Military Health System; and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Numerous HL7 Affiliates have been established around the globe including Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Uruguay.
For more information, please visit: www.HL7.org
About the IEEE Standards Association
The IEEE Standards Association, a globally recognized standards-setting body within the IEEE, develops consensus standards through an open process that engages industry and brings together a broad stakeholder community. IEEE standards set specifications and best practices based on current scientific and technological knowledge. The IEEE-SA has a portfolio of over 900 active standards and more than 600 standards under development. For information on the IEEE-SA, see: http://standards.ieee.org.
About IEEE
IEEE, the world's largest technical professional association, is dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities, IEEE is the trusted voice on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics. Learn more at http://www.ieee.org.
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