I am doing Research on the HL7 Version 3 messaging standard. I was told that hl7 version 2 implementations don't really support multimedia data processing (images, videos, etc.). However this blog: <http://www.hl7standards.com/blog/2006/10/18/how-do-i-send-a-binary-file-inside-of-an-hl7-message/> states, that the ed (encapsulated data) data type already exists in the version 2 standard. i even found the speciation for the ed data type in chapter 2 of the hl7 v2.3.1 standard. So it is possible to send image data in hl7 v2 messages. 

Also, the processing is the same: there can be a reference to the multimedia data (i.e. url) and there can be base64 encoded data.

I am aware of the fact that both sending system and receiving system have to support the ed data type. So there is the possibility that hl7 v2 implementations don’t support this data type. But other than that, is there really a difference? 

Thank you!

PS:Of course I’m not talking about the main difference: the model driven methodology of hl7 v3. my scope is only the processing of multimedia data.