Simplifier Data Modeling Launch
The ideal way to kickstart your organization’s FHIR journey
Start strong with FHIR.
Many FHIR projects get stuck early—due to fragmented workflows, unclear agreements, and messy implementation guides. The Data Modeling Launch fixes this by bringing structure, tools, and collaboration from day one.
The Simplifier Data Modeling Launch helps your team kickstart FHIR profiling and Implementation Guide authoring with the right setup and workflows tailored to your environment.
Who is this program for?
Anyone responsible for setting up FHIR specifications—from data architects to functional designers. Especially valuable for teams starting their FHIR journey and looking to avoid early pitfalls.
- Solid foundation for FHIR modeling
- Guided by Firely’s consultants
- Powered by Simplifier.net
How it works
A Firely data modeling consultant will guide your team through the setup process and ensure you have a solid foundation to build your FHIR models upon.
The Data Modelling Launch consists of 3 online workshops over a period of 3 weeks. This allows for enough time for the participants to work on the action items after the meeting.
Simplifier Data Modeling Sprint
What you’ll walk away with after three sessions:
- Clear collaboration agreements (sync strategies, versioning, naming conventions)
- A visually consistent and dynamic Implementation Guide
- Integrated validation and QA setup (local + CI/CD)
- Tangible progress and long-term value from your Simplifier environment
“By the end, you’ll have a robust, reusable project with clear workflows, consistent styling and automated validation”
– Ardon Toonstra – Senior Consultant
While the program focuses on preparing your organization and environment for FHIR profiling, we also offer a data modeling training course and consultancy services to dive deeper into the art of profiling itself.
Simplifier Data Modeling Launch Deliverables
Feedback collection
A structured approach to involve stakeholders and improve your IGs based on real-world input. You’ll get:
- Tools and workflows for tracking feedback and managing issues
- Guidance for formal review rounds, external consultations, and balloting
Implementation Guide Template
A branded, consistent, and maintainable starting point for your Implementation Guide
- Design flexibility to match your organization’s branding
- A curated set of essential pages, templates, and diagrams (PlantUML)
- Dynamic content generation using FQL, fully documented for easy reuse
Automated Quality Assurance (QA)
A validation framework to ensure consistent quality across your FHIR development.
- Custom QA rules aligned with your profiling guidelines
- End-to-end validation workflow across local tools, Simplifier, and CI/CD
- Tips for sharing validation results with internal and external stakeholders
Authoring Workflow
A practical framework to help your team build and publish FHIR Implementation Guides with confidence.
- Step-by-step setup of team and project structures in Simplifier.net
- Synchronization between Simplifier, local tools, and Git
- Recommendations for authoring tools like FSH and JSON/XML
- Publishing options for public, internal, or restricted access
- Guidance on example generation to improve clarity and usability
Profiling Guidelines
A shared foundation for consistent FHIR modeling across your organization. This internal guide captures key design principles, modeling agreements, and architectural decisions, including:
- Naming conventions for profiles, extensions, and elements
- Linking profiles to functional specs and logical models
- Versioning and release strategy for lifecycle management
- Architectural decision log to ensure transparency
Simplifier Data Modeling Framework
How you will receive it
All deliverables will be developed in close collaboration with your team and delivered through a dedicated Simplifier.net project. This project environment will include:
- A ready-to-use Implementation Guide template that:
- Can be copied into any of your organization’s projects to quickly launch new guides with consistent styling and best-practice page structures
- Includes your finalized profiling guidelines, agreed workflows, feedback processes and other essential documentation
- The most recent version of your team’s automated QA rules, along with example data to validate them
- A Kanban board to track the development and progress of all related deliverables and tasks
- Full team access, both during and after the engagement, to continue building and maintaining your project independently
Align with the HL7 FHIR Community Process (FCP)
In addition to setting up your Implementation Guide for internal use and external clarity, the Launch also helps you prepare for HL7 FHIR Compliance Pathway (FCP) alignment. We translate key FCP requirements into a practical, repeatable workflow.
- Centralized issue management with a transparent audit trail to support traceability and governance
- HL7-aligned Implementation Guide templates, based on best practices used in formal HL7 guides
- IG Publisher validation, helping your team target zero-error publication from the start
This ensures that your project isn’t just technically sound—but also aligned with expectations from formal standards organizations like HL7 or IHE.
Need help with data modeling?
Since the Data Modeling Launch doesn’t cover the actual design of your FHIR data models, our expert FHIR consultants are here to help. With deep experience across projects and tech stacks, we can support you at any stage – whether you’re just getting started or scaling a mature FHIR solution.
FHIR Data Modeling Training
Want to deepen your team’s modeling skills? Our course covers:
- Designing and creating FHIR Profiles
- How profiles relate to other modeling standards
- Documenting model adaptations for specific use cases
- Hands-on exercises to apply what you learn
- A series of hands-on exercises allowing the attendee to get an in-depth understanding of the material
- Find more info here
Whether you need guidance, hands-on modeling or just someone to coach your team – we’re here to support your next step.
FAQ – Data Modeling Launch
Not necessarily. While some understanding of FHIR is helpful, we often work with teams that are new to conformance resources like StructureDefinitions or ValueSets. One goal of the Launch is to help you avoid mistakes and inefficiencies common in early-stage FHIR projects.
We’ll ask for some basic information about your team, intended use case(s) and any early modeling work you’ve done. Don’t worry—we’ll guide you through it all during the intake. No polished profiles needed, just your ambition to get started the right way.
You’ll walk away with a fully functioning modeling environment, including:
– Clear profiling guidelines and naming/versioning conventions
– All of this is delivered inside a Simplifier.net project that your team controls.
– A branded Implementation Guide with consistent structure and navigation
– A validation and QA setup for Simplifier, local tools and CI/CD
– A feedback collection workflow, synced with your IG
No. The Launch is about setting up your modeling infrastructure—not creating specific profiles for your use case. If you need help designing your data model, we offer separate Standalone FHIR consulting and a FHIR Profiling Course for that.
We work within the Simplifier.net ecosystem and follow HL7 FHIR best practices. The Launch includes support for FQL (FHIR Query Language), PlantUML, SUSHI-compatible workflows and integration with Git-based pipelines.
Yes. The branded IG template, profiling guidelines, QA rules and authoring workflows are designed to be copied across multiple Simplifier projects. This gives you a repeatable process for future initiatives.
The full program takes 3 weeks, with 3 online workshops and intermediate work by your team. We adapt the pace to your availability, but most teams are fully set up after three sessions.
You’ll have a professionally structured Simplifier project, a working Implementation Guide in your organization’s style, active QA validation and clear modeling agreements. In short: a rock-solid foundation for long-term success.
Absolutely. We’ll leave you with full ownership of your project and documentation for onboarding new team members. Many teams also use the Launch as a first step and continue with our consultancy or training to support modeling work.
Yes. As part of the Launch, we provide a working Implementation Guide template and offer access to example projects in Simplifier. This helps you compare, learn, and build faster.
Definitely. The Launch includes a feedback workflow setup and user access management in Simplifier, so you can gather input from reviewers, guests or domain experts in a structured way.
Yes. One of the goals of the Data Modeling Launch is to align your workflow with the expectations of formal standards bodies like HL7. While we don’t submit artifacts to the FHIR Community Process (FCP) for you, we help you put the required structures in place.
Kickstart your FHIR modeling with confidence
FHIR modeling can be overwhelming—especially when you’re just getting started with profiling, versioning and authoring Implementation Guides.