In Colombia, FHIR is widely used to exchange healthcare data. It serves as one of the main standards for digital health information exchange across both public and private sectors.

Most implementations use FHIR R4, with some earlier work on DSTU2. We expect FHIR adoption to grow strongly in the coming years, driven by recent national regulation and active projects across the healthcare ecosystem.

Colombia has made more progress than expected over the past year, and respondents are satisfied with the current pace of adoption.

Rules and Support

Colombia has clear regulations that shape health data exchange:

  • A 2020 law established the Interoperable Electronic Health Record.
  • Resolution 866 (2021) defined the minimum data set for the Digital Health Care Summary (known as RDA in Spanish).
  • In 2025, FHIR was officially adopted as the interoperability standard for RDA.
  • FHIR use is mandated by regulation.
  • A compliance deadline is in place, with most institutions expected to go live before April 15.
  • No fines are imposed for missing the deadline.
  • Government funds are available to support FHIR adoption.

The Colombian FHIR RDA Implementation Guide is published at vulcano.ihcecol.gov.co. It includes 37 FHIR profiles, 21 extensions, and 75 local code systems.

National Setup

Colombia has a strong national structure for FHIR standards development:

  • Standards organization: HL7 Colombia is the national affiliate. Visit hl7co.org.
  • Core implementation guide: A national base FHIR guide is in use for a limited set of cases. You can find it at co.fhir.guide/core.
  • Terminology services: A national FHIR terminology server is currently in development.
  • FHIR Community Process (FCP): Colombia has one or more FCP specifications in development, with approved specifications expected within 2–3 years.

HL7 Colombia has helped accelerate FHIR adoption, design the first use cases, and build a governance model that includes the user community.

Active Use Cases

FHIR specifications are being developed in Colombia for:

  • Prescriptions and pharmacy
  • Public health reporting
  • Terminology
  • Diagnostic orders and reports
  • Document exchange
  • Immunizations
  • Clinical registries
  • Invoice and claim

Colombian FHIR work also builds on the International Patient Summary as an international foundation.

Who's Using FHIR

The main groups adopting FHIR in Colombia include:

  • Payers and insurers
  • Government agencies

The main reasons for adoption are:

  • Regulation and government funding
  • Improving health outcomes

Common technical approaches include:

  • FHIR Documents and FHIR REST API are widely used.
  • FHIR Shorthand (a tool for writing FHIR specifications) is also widely applied.
  • SMART on FHIR, FHIR Bulk Data, and FHIR Questionnaires are used in some cases.

Open source software is more commonly used than proprietary software, though both play a role. Cloud vendors like Microsoft (Azure Health Data Services), AWS (HealthLake), and Google (Healthcare API) have helped accelerate FHIR implementation.

Success Stories and Challenges

Colombia has several concrete FHIR success stories:

  • SURA: An insurer covering more than 10 million patients has used FHIR since 2016 to exchange data with more than 1,600 medical offices and hospitals.
  • Ecopetrol: The Colombian Petroleum Company uses FHIR since 2024 to support its employee health plan, connecting with more than 400 healthcare providers (goal: 1,400 points of care).
  • Keralty (Sanitas): An insurer covering more than 8 million patients has used FHIR since 2023 across its network of 140+ care points.
  • Ministry of Health RDA project: Over 9,000 hospitals and clinics are working with more than 50 software vendors to adopt FHIR.

Reported achievements include:

  • Improved healthcare outcomes
  • Improved access to information

The main challenges are:

  • High investment costs
  • Lack of FHIR knowledge

AI and FHIR

The growth of AI is somewhat helping FHIR and structured data efforts in Colombia. AI is especially useful for facilitating data capture at the source. Respondents are neutral on whether AI reduces the need to invest in structured data.

Future Plans

Looking ahead, Colombia expects:

  • Further development of the national FHIR data model
  • Development of new FHIR standards for specific use cases such as lab orders and results, medication prescribing and dispensing, and claims
  • These new use cases may eventually become national regulations

There is strong agreement that within three years, Colombia will see real benefits from FHIR adoption, including cost savings, better care coordination, and a stronger digital health ecosystem.

Contributors

  • Mario Cortés, Chair and Director, HL7 Colombia

The above summary is based on the answers to the State of FHIR Survey 2026, organized by Firely and HL7 International.