Tools to fix data plumbing

Hospitals still run much of their data exchange on HL7 v2, a pipe-delimited message format from the 1980s, while newer apps increasingly expect FHIR, the web-style standard built around reusable data “resources.” (healthit.gov) That leaves health systems translating between two formats at once: HL7 v2 for feeds coming out of electronic health records, and FHIR for APIs, analytics pipelines, and newer software. The Office of the National Coordinator says FHIR was designed to let current systems coexist with older message-based standards while making real-time exchange easier. (healthit.gov) One of the tools circulating now is Microsoft’s open-source FHIR Converter, which is published on GitHub under the MIT license and supports HL7 v2-to-FHIR conversion with template-based mappings. Its repository says it can also handle C-CDA to FHIR, JSON to FHIR, FHIR STU3 to R4, and FHIR to HL7 v2 in preview. (github.com) HL7 also maintains its own v2-to-FHIR project on GitHub, with mappings, samples, Java source code, and build scripts in a public repository that has been updated within the past year. The project sits under Health Level Seven International’s official GitHub organization, alongside the core FHIR specification. (github.com 1) (github.com 2) The practical issue is not just moving data, but preserving meaning as it moves. FHIR breaks information into standard pieces like Patient and Observation resources, so a lab result or diagnosis can be pulled into apps and workflows without parsing an entire message blob. (healthit.gov) (fhir.hl7.org) A second bottleneck sits inside the electronic health record itself: the problem list, the running summary of a patient’s active and past conditions. IMO Health says those lists often contain duplicate, outdated, or nonspecific entries, which can weaken Hierarchical Condition Category, or HCC, coding used in risk adjustment. (imohealth.com) IMO says its problem-list tooling can alert clinicians to potentially missing HCC detail using prior encounter data, patient notes, or payer-supplied information, and can track responses inside workflow. The company says more specific diagnoses support more complete ICD-10-CM coding, reduce documentation rework, and help organizations stay audit-ready. (imohealth.com) CMS maintains annual Medicare Advantage risk-adjustment model software and ICD-10 mappings, including files for 2026, because payment depends on diagnoses being documented and coded in the right categories. CMS’s risk-adjustment page lists model diagnosis codes, eligible encounter code sets, and customer-support materials for plans and providers. (cms.gov 1) (cms.gov 2) The thread tying these products together is basic data plumbing: convert old messages cleanly at the interface, and tighten diagnosis detail before the record leaves the chart. When those two steps fail, the downstream problems show up later in billing, quality measurement, analytics, and clinical decision support. (healthit.gov) (imohealth.com)