---
id: hl7apy
version: "1.3.5"
license: MIT License
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: dormant
---

# hl7apy — HL7apy: a lightweight Python library to parse, create and handle HL7 v2.x messages

License: permissive · Maintenance: dormant · Downloads: 802.9K/mo

## What it is and what it does

HL7apy is a Python library for working with HL7 v2.x messages, the standard format for healthcare data interchange. It handles the full lifecycle: parsing incoming messages into structured objects, creating new messages programmatically, and validating them against HL7 specifications. The library supports all HL7 datatypes (simple and complex), allows custom encoding characters, and can encode messages in ER7 format with MLLP protocol compliance.

The package has no external dependencies and installs as a pure-Python wheel, making it lightweight and portable. It's aimed at healthcare IT developers building systems that need to send or receive HL7 messages. However, the project has been dormant for 884 days with no recent releases, so it receives no active maintenance; use it when you need HL7 v2 support in a stable, unchanging codebase.

Use it for:

- Parse incoming HL7 admission/discharge/transfer messages from hospital systems into Python objects for processing.
- Generate HL7 messages programmatically to send patient data to external healthcare systems or EHRs.
- Validate HL7 messages against HL7 specifications before transmission to ensure compliance.
- Extract specific fields from HL7 messages by name or position for data integration pipelines.
- Build MLLP-compliant healthcare data interchange endpoints that receive and send HL7 v2 messages.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

HL7apy parses, creates, and validates HL7 v2.x healthcare messages according to HL7 specifications, with support for all datatypes, custom encoding, and MLLP protocol compliance.

Yes, if you need HL7 v2 message handling in Python and can accept a dormant package. The library is lightweight, has no dependencies, carries permissive licensing, and has seen no reported security issues. Install it for stable, read-only HL7 work; avoid it if you need active maintenance, bug fixes, or support for emerging HL7 standards.

## Install

pip install hl7apy
uv add hl7apy
poetry add hl7apy

## Installing hl7apy

Before you install: No runtime dependencies and a pure-Python wheel distribution mean installation is straightforward. The package is dormant—no releases in 884 days—so expect no active maintenance or bug fixes, though the codebase appears stable for existing use cases.

License in practice: MIT License is permissive, allowing commercial and private use with minimal restrictions; you may use, modify, and distribute hl7apy freely as long as you include the license notice.

Quickstart:

pip install hl7apy

from hl7apy.core import Message

msg = Message('ADT')
msg.parse('MSH|^~\\&|...')

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package works reliably with modern Python versions (3.10, 3.11, 3.12) despite dormant status.
- Current state of documentation and whether examples remain accurate for HL7 v2 specifications.
- Whether MLLP protocol support is production-ready or limited to basic encoding/decoding.

## Package facts

- License: MIT License (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: dormant
- Downloads: 802.9K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

hl7 message parsing python, hl7 v2 healthcare messages, hl7 message creation validation, hl7 er7 encoding, healthcare data interchange python, hl7 mllp protocol, parse hl7 messages, healthcare-data, hl7-v2, message-parsing

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