Extended Commentary: I believe that a REST based API middleware will have an equal or greater impact on our industry as interface engines had on HL7. Still, it is hard to find people who understand this (many people I meet that know only RIS and PACS concepts stare at me blankly when I talk about this, but those that do get it can’t help but be motivated to participate in the change).

Another recent and powerful innovation is the definition of something called JSON for structured data. This is a new method that essentially competes with XML. It is simpler to process (read as: much faster with less CPU cycles needed) and transport (read as: smaller files for the same info). We have been advocating for its use in new healthcare standards and are making good progress recently. To contrast, SOAP uses XML extensively.