--- title: We’ll never get anywhere going nowhere description: Much of the healthcare IT community seemingly continues to wait for the perfect – not optimal but perfect – time to embrace Health Level 7’s (HL7) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) tool. Why wait? image: https://www.bookzurman.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Workplace%20with%20tablet%20pc%20showing%20calendar%20and%20a%20cup%20of%20coffee%20on%20a%20wooden%20work%20table%20close-up.jpeg --- ![Book Zurman, Inc | Healthcare IT Solutions](https://www.bookzurman.com/hubfs/logos/BookZurman%20SVG%20Logos/BZ-logo-tagline-RGB-leftalign.svg) [![Book Zurman, Inc | Healthcare IT Solutions](https://www.bookzurman.com/hubfs/logos/BookZurman%20SVG%20Logos/BZ-logo-tagline-RGB-leftalign.svg "Book Zurman, Inc | Healthcare IT Solutions")](https://www.bookzurman.com/) - Healthcare Solutions - By Sector - [Private](https://www.bookzurman.com/private-sector-healthcare-it-systems) - [Federal](https://www.bookzurman.com/public-health-it-systems) - By Solution - [Informatics Architecture](https://www.bookzurman.com/healthcare-data-solutions) - [Clinical Decision Support](https://www.bookzurman.com/clinical-decision-support-tools) - [Standards and Interoperability](https://www.bookzurman.com/interoperability-in-healthcare) - [Care Coordination](https://www.bookzurman.com/care-management-solutions) - [Consulting](https://www.bookzurman.com/healthcare-it-consulting-services) - [Blog](https://www.bookzurman.com/blog) - About Us - [About BZ](https://www.bookzurman.com/about) - [Partners](https://www.bookzurman.com/healthcare-standards-community-partners) - [Contact Us](https://www.bookzurman.com/contact-us) [GET INDEPENDENT ADVICE](https://www.bookzurman.com/get-independent-advice) This is a search field with an auto-suggest feature attached. - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. # We’ll never get anywhere going nowhere [BookZurman](https://www.bookzurman.com/blog/author/bookzurman) 2019-08-06 ![](https://www.bookzurman.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Workplace%20with%20tablet%20pc%20showing%20calendar%20and%20a%20cup%20of%20coffee%20on%20a%20wooden%20work%20table%20close-up.jpeg?width=1600&height=1600&name=Workplace%20with%20tablet%20pc%20showing%20calendar%20and%20a%20cup%20of%20coffee%20on%20a%20wooden%20work%20table%20close-up.jpeg)   ![close up of a calendar](https://www.bookzurman.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/close%20up%20of%20a%20calendar.jpeg?width=750&name=close%20up%20of%20a%20calendar.jpeg) As we're past the halfway point of 2019, how are your New Year’s resolutions coming along? Have you begun implementing FHIR® 4 in your healthcare IT ecosystem? Still waiting for that mythical “perfect time”? **Why wait?** What if we all waited until the “perfect time” – relationship stability, fiscal security, energy, unlimited time to spend with them – to have children? Especially knowing that circumstances can – and often do, sometimes in meaningful ways – change from day to day? Odds are there would be very few people having offspring. Instead, we generally look for optimal times: We may not have a lot of money or free time but running after toddlers may be one of the few things not lost on youth. Optimal and perfect aren’t the same. Perfect is impossible. Optimal, in the real world, means you’ve prepared for an endeavor and also are as prepared as can be for the inevitable hiccups that will happen. Kids are way more complicated than 1s and 0s (just ask a teenager’s parent) and yet much of the healthcare IT community seemingly continues to wait for the perfect – not optimal but perfect – time to embrace Health Level 7’s (HL7) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) tool. There’s not a little irony in the fact that there has been so much foot-dragging over something that starts with “fast!” **Taking action to meet your goals ** Let’s get this out there: No less an authority than Grahame Grieve, generally regarded as the “father of FHIR,” will say that FHIR is not a magic bullet. It is a tool designed to help bring different electronic platforms together … something of a zipper: There are right ways and wrong ways to use it but, when implemented properly, can pull together different systems in an orderly fashion. In fact, the rollout of FHIR 4 has presented the healthcare IT community something of a put-up-or-shut-up moment: This version promises to be backward-compatible for the elements that currently are normative. There’s no longer a good reason not to engage FHIR. We would be glad to discuss with you the most effective ways to use this exciting tool and others to further your interoperability and care-coordination goals. And best of luck with those resolutions! [Share this blog post on Twitter](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=I+found+this+interesting+blog+post&url=https://www.bookzurman.com/blog/well-never-get-anywhere-going-nowhere) [Share this blog post on Facebook](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https://www.bookzurman.com/blog/well-never-get-anywhere-going-nowhere) [Share this blog post on LinkedIn](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://www.bookzurman.com/blog/well-never-get-anywhere-going-nowhere) ## Related Articles ## [Patient Matching: Searching for Answers That Already Exist](https://www.bookzurman.com/blog/patient-matching-searching-for-answers-that-already-exist) [BookZurman](https://www.bookzurman.com/blog/author/bookzurman) 2019-04-09 [![](https://www.bookzurman.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Care%20Coordination_Simple.png?width=700&height=700&name=Care%20Coordination_Simple.png)](https://www.bookzurman.com/blog/an-innovative-cure-for-chronic-care-management) ## [An Innovative Cure for Chronic Care Management](https://www.bookzurman.com/blog/an-innovative-cure-for-chronic-care-management) [BookZurman](https://www.bookzurman.com/blog/author/bookzurman) 2018-12-17 [![](https://www.bookzurman.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/BZ_Blog_Slide_GoogleAPI_0720.jpg?width=700&height=700&name=BZ_Blog_Slide_GoogleAPI_0720.jpg)](https://www.bookzurman.com/blog/brianbookshiftspatientmatchingprotocol-0) ## [Brian Book on the Google Cloud Healthcare API and the Elephant in the Room](https://www.bookzurman.com/blog/brianbookshiftspatientmatchingprotocol-0) While the Google Cloud Healthcare API enables healthcare organizations and... [BookZurman](https://www.bookzurman.com/blog/author/bookzurman) 2020-07-02 [![BZ-logo-RGB-White-Book-Font](https://www.bookzurman.com/hubfs/logos/BookZurman%20SVG%20Logos/BZ-logo-RGB-White-Book-Font.svg "BZ-logo-RGB-White-Book-Font")](https://www.bookzurman.com/) BookZurman specializes in managing complex program lifecycles that include developing, deploying, and maintaining large-scale, enterprise-wide healthcare IT systems. We provide program, project, and IT architecture management services in Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) and Health Informatics including medical terminology and HIT standards. 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