Introduction to Healthcare Data Standards: HL7, FHIR, and APIs

In the modern healthcare landscape, seamless communication between clinical systems is critical for patient care. Understanding how data moves securely and accurately between electronic health records and external applications is a fundamental skill for healthcare IT professionals and developers. This text-based course guides you through the core concepts of healthcare interoperability. You will gain a clear understanding of legacy and modern data exchange standards, enabling you to confidently discuss, analyze, and plan integration projects in clinical environments. What you will learn: Understand the core terminology and foundational concepts of healthcare interoperability; Compare traditional HL7 v2 messaging with modern FHIR specifications; Explore the role of RESTful APIs and JSON in modern clinical data exchange; Learn how resource-based architectures organize patient, practitioner, and observation data; Analyze security basics for healthcare data transmission, including OAuth2 and SMART on FHIR principles; Practice reading and interpreting healthcare data payloads through structured written examples. The course begins with essential definitions and the history of healthcare IT standards before moving into detailed breakdowns of HL7 messages, FHIR resources, and secure API communication. Designed for beginners, healthcare administrators, IT professionals, and software developers transitioning into health tech, this course requires no prior experience with medical data standards. Start building your foundational knowledge of healthcare data exchange today.