Fast Health Interoperability Resources or FHIR (pronounced “fire”) is a relative newcomer in Health IT, and the latest generation of HL7 standards. It is also somewhat unusual in that it is being made available free of charge, and is being developed through an open process in this post I explore a few of the main concepts underlying FHIR (the “big bits”), and why it is perhaps different from its predecessors.  Its current version, Draft Standard for Trial Use 2 (DSTU 2) isn’t even an official release. Yet, it enjoys tremendous popularity, and there are many early adopters, such as Regenstrief. Part of the reason for this is that expectations are high, and the time seems to be right for this technology. For example, though…