As of January 1, 2026, the healthcare industry has officially crossed the rubicon of data liquidity. For years, the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard was viewed by many C-suites as a regulatory “box to check.” Today, however, the landscape has shifted. Fueled by the enforcement of the CMS-0057-F final rule and the maturity of USCDI v6, FHIR has evolved from a compliance burden into a non-negotiable prerequisite for value-based care, administrative efficiency, and the deployment of clinical-grade AI.

Strategic interoperability in 2026 is no longer just about “moving data”; it is about Data Utility—ensuring that information is liquid, semantically accurate, and available at the precise moment of clinical or administrative need.

The FHIR Maturity Model: From HL7 v2 to RESTful Liquidity

The transition from legacy HL7 v2 and v3 messaging to FHIR R4 and R5 represents a shift from “pushing” static documents to “pulling” granular, discrete data … Read More