With the development of HIS/RIS(Hospital/Radiolog y Information System), it is very important to study the HL7(Health Level Seven) Sta ndard for electronic data exchange in healthcare environments. Firstly, in this paper, the history, development goal and conceptions of HL7 are introduced. Secondly, its applications and auto-realization technologies are presented. Then, the problems which exist in the standard and the difficulties of HL7 in China are ana lyzed. Finally, some helpful suggestions about the development of HL7 in China are proposed.