Today, the Medical Library Association (MLA) and Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL) commented on how the Health Level Seven International (HL7®) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard could be used to capture, integrate, and exchange clinical data for research purposes and to enhance capabilities to share research data.
The comments addressed roles and opportunities for libraries and health sciences information professionals as members of the research team to
- support further development and use of FHIR on their campuses; and
- support ethical, privacy, and security considerations when using FHIR to share research data.
MLA recommended ways that NIH can stimulate research into standards development and called for more education and training in informatics/data science, including FHIR, for a wide spectrum of librarians starting with pre-library and information science students through early/mid/late career librarians.
MLA expresses grateful appreciation to the following members who developed these comments: John Bramble, Heather Brown, Carrie E. Grinstead, Philip D. Walker, and Merle Rosenzweig. These members represent MLA's Joint MLA/AAHSL Legislative Task Force, Scholarly Communications Committee, Data Caucus, and Medical Informatics Caucus.
The associations' comments can be read here.