Hands-on approach for teaching HL7 version 3

The deployment of the Health Level seven (HL7) version three (v3) standard is steadily increasing. However, the learning curve is long, steep and difficult because the information structure is complex. In this paper, we show how a hands-on approach for teaching HL7 v3 as part of a graduate course on healthcare information, allows students with diversified background and no software development experience, to grasp a large breadth of knowledge in a very short time.