The HL7 International Working Group Meeting in Rotterdam 16-22 May 2026 is rapidly approaching, one of three WGMs organised by HL7 International and the only one in Europe this year, co-hosted by HL7 Netherlands. These gatherings bring together a diverse community of experts, stakeholders and thought leaders to advance standards like HL7 V2, CDA and FHIR. Attendees collaborate on refining specifications, addressing challenges and shaping the future of healthcare data exchange through interactive sessions, work group meetings, and collaborative discussions.

HL7 Europe will be organising and co-hosting the EHDS track, focused on the growing HL7 Europe FHIR Implementation Guides ecosystem that support the implementation of the European health Data Space regulation. This webinar will deliver an update of the WGM, and kick off the collaboration on the EHDS track.

The Implementation Guides covered include those for Hospital Discharge Reports, ePrescription and eDispense, Laboratory Reports, Patient Summaries (EPS and IPS), Imaging Reports, and Health Data APIs. Speakers will include Rutt Lindström, Giorgio Cangioli, Rob Hausam, Josh Priebe, Patrick Werner and Kai Heitmann, Michael Strübin will facilitate. There will be plenty of time for Q&A.

See the presentation slides here.

Before there was the EHDS, there was health telematics, health IT, telemedicine, eHealth… and there was Bert Kabbes, a Dutch healthcare integration specialist who discovered Health level Seven (HL7 was just a few years old), saw its potential, and set upon bringing global standards and interoperability to the Netherlands. That was in the early 1990s.

Last December, Bert Kabbes passed, and the HL7 Netherlands community came together to celebrate his life. In a moving tribute to their founder, driving force, and inspiration, his friends and colleagues praised his efforts to convene and drive the Dutch HL7 affiliate (almost the first in the world), to advance global standards adoption in the Netherlands, and to drive connectivity and exchange of information in Dutch healthcare.

In this webinar, HL7 Europe would like to bring the European HL7 community together, newcomers as well as seasoned experts, to reflect on the wider implications and learnings from Bert’s journey, touching on themes of:

• The interplay of global standards and local implementation
• The work on maturing national affiliates and
• Paths towards building the HL7 community.

Featured speakers will include:

• René Spronk, Ringholm
• Jan-Eric Slot, HL7 Netherlands
• Robert Stegwee, CEN/TC251

Panellists will include:

• Alexander Henket, NICTIZ
• Catherine Chronaki, HL7 Europe
• Kai Heitmann, HL7 Germany

See also the presentation slides here.

The webinar was hold on 16 March 2026 and facilitated by Michael Strübin from HL7 Europe.

The HL7 Europe FHIR Base and Core IG is a foundational set of FHIR profiles that provide a consistent framework for healthcare data exchange across Europe, supporting the European Health Data Space (EHDS) by defining reusable ‘Base’ (flexible) and ‘Core’ (more constrained) profiles for common elements, ensuring interoperability while aligning with international standards like the International Patient Summary. The version 2.0.0 has been developed with the support of the Xt-EHR Joint Action, which provided expertise and alignment with European health policy priorities, and is currently out for ballot in the HL7 Europe community. In this webinar, HL7 Europe and Xt-EHR speakers will report on what’s new in version 2.0.0, explain how this aligns with Xt-EHR, and what will be the next steps.

In this webinar, the newest installment in our series on the FHIR IG ecosystem for the EHDS, you learn more about the interplay of international standards and the forthcoming specifications for the European Electronic Health Record Exchange Format (EHRxF) which the Commission will publish in March 2027.

Speakers will include:

• Rutt Lindström, TEHIK (EE) and HL7 Europe
• Daniel Karlsson, eHealth Agency (SE)
• Hynek Kružík, HL7 Europe
• Giorgio Cangioli, HL7 Europe

See also the presentation slides here.

The webinar was facilitated by Michael Strübin from HL7 Europe.