Back in 2009, I was a Web Developer for an Ivy League University in New England. At that time, like most HIT professionals, I was paying close attention to President Obama and his commitment to digitize medical records via ARRA. He made it clear his goal was to create jobs to help stimulate the economy. So, I knew these political maneuvers would have a major impact on HIT. As a result, I was ready to personally benefit from these changes.

Due to ARRA, in 2010 I moved back into HIT and began my career with HL7 interoperability in 2011. It was a small leap from Software Developer to HL7 Engineer; however, I quickly noticed that there were no affordable, easy to understand resources to quickly learn HL7 and interface engines.

I must admit that I yearned for an HL7 for Dummies book. To my surprise, I looked around and found nothing. In 2013, I created one to give back to the industry with an affordable book that focuses on HIT data exchange via HL7 interface engines.

So, then came the online course idea. This HL7 Starter School was a natural progression on my journey to help the Healthcare IT communtiy.

The three objectives of this school are to introduce you to:

• 1. HL7 messages
• 1. FHIR resources
• 2. Interface Engines