Perspectives on Healthcare IT, clinical informatics, emerging technology, and life at the intersection of nursing and enterprise systems.
DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) is the international standard for formatting, storing, and exchanging medical images and related information. This post explains how DICOM files and services work, how DICOMweb brings imaging to modern web applications, where DICOM fits with PACS, HL7, and IHE, and why image identity matters to nurses.
An application programming interface (API) is a defined way for one piece of software to request data or services from another. This post explains how APIs work, how FHIR-based APIs became a federal requirement in healthcare, what security risks they bring, and how they show up for patients and nurses.
LOINC gives every lab test and clinical observation a universal code, so a glucose result or a heart rate means the same thing in every system. This post explains how LOINC codes are built, how LOINC differs from SNOMED CT and CPT, where it is required, and why nursing documentation depends on it.
Health information exchange is the electronic movement of clinical information between organizations in a way that keeps its meaning. This post explains the three forms of HIE, how HIEs relate to TEFCA and interoperability, what makes exchange useful, and how it shows up at the bedside.
C-CDA is the document standard behind most patient summaries exchanged between U.S. healthcare organizations. This post explains how C-CDA relates to CDA, the CCD, USCDI, and FHIR, which document types it defines, and why nurses meet C-CDA documents at nearly every transition of care.
ADT messages announce every admission, discharge, transfer, and registration to the systems that need to know. This post explains the HL7 v2 events behind ADT, why nearly every hospital system depends on them, how CMS uses ADT for event notifications, and how ADT shapes nursing workflow.
TEFCA is the national framework that connects health information networks into a single network of networks. This post explains the Trusted Exchange Framework, the Common Agreement, QHINs, and the exchange purposes TEFCA supports, and why it matters at transitions of care.
USCDI is the federal list of health data that certified systems must be able to exchange. This post explains data classes and elements, how USCDI versions advance, how it replaced the Common Clinical Data Set, and how it relates to US Core, C-CDA, and TEFCA.
SNOMED CT is the clinical terminology that lets computers agree on what a diagnosis, finding, or procedure means. This post explains how SNOMED CT works, how it differs from ICD-10-CM, LOINC, and RxNorm, and why coded clinical data starts with the clinicians who document it.
FHIR is the HL7 standard that brought modern web APIs to healthcare data, and federal rules now require it. This post explains FHIR resources, how FHIR differs from HL7 v2, C-CDA, and USCDI, why SMART on FHIR matters, and where nurses already meet FHIR without knowing it.
Interoperability is the backbone of connected healthcare — but most people only know half the story. The HIMSS Dictionary (6th Ed., 2025) now defines FOUR levels, not three. This first HIMSS Word of The Day post breaks it down from both an IT and bedside nursing perspective — with CAHIMS exam tips you won’t find in most study guides.