Difference between HL7 ver. 2.3 and 2.5

Question

I googled this title but unable to find any comprehensive information. I am chiefly interested in new segments that have been introduced in 2.5 version.

Answer 1

You can find all of the standards here:

HL7 Primary Standards

Below is a whitepaper detailing the major differences between the two standards:

Highlights of HL7 v2.5

There are a large number of changes between 2.3 and 2.5, most notably - these changes are required for different certifications, government policies, etc. An example of this is having a specified field for CLIA certification information, bar code scanning fields for more granular tracking of laboratory samples, etc.

The overall topic to the changes between 2.3 to 2.5 is taking generic/generalized fields and message types, and specifying them to result in more detailed information. An example of this is the 2.3 message type ORM - Order Message. Instead of having one ORM that covers any order for a patient, this has been specified by the type of order that's being placed on the patient - The ORM has been thrown out of the 2.5 standard and you have message types that are specific to laboratory orders, blood bank orders, medication orders, and imaging orders - as shown in the whitepaper.