Archive for the ‘HL7 Messaging’ Category

A new term spreading (almost like fire) through the healthcare interoperability world is HL7 FHIR, pronounced as “fire.” Here are the Top 5 things I think you should know about this upcoming standard many hope will help solve many current issues in interoperability: FHIR stands for Fast Healthcare Interoperable Resource. FHIR combines the best features [...]

A few months ago I wrote about the ELINCS EDGE testing tool, a free program that allows you to easily test your interfaces against ELINCS compliant HL7 result messages.  For those unfamiliar with the existing standard, ELINCS (EHR-Lab Interoperability and Connectivity Specification) is an HL7 v2.x based message profile used for the reporting of lab [...]

When working through the complexities of a healthcare integration project or monitoring day to day operations within your existing interface environment, it is sometimes necessary to “dig in” to the discrete message data being moved between applications, whether it is HL7, XML, X12, NCPDP SCRIPT, etc.  For instance, there are scenarios common to healthcare integration [...]

The HL7 ACK Message. What are my options? When sending and receiving HL7 messages, the sender connections may be configured in one of two ways: to wait for an acknowledgement before sending the next message (HL7 ACK message) to wait a specified amount of time before sending the next message (interface pacing) How do HL7 [...]

As you read this, do you know the status of every clinical interface in your environment? Unfortunately, a common answer to this question may be, “I have not received a call from anybody, so everything must be fine.” What needs to be monitored in HL7 messaging? Some examples include: Guaranteed message delivery ACK vs NACK [...]

More independent reference laboratories and imaging centers are connecting to their referring community of physicians by creating interfaces between their Laboratory Information System (LIS), Radiology Information System (RIS), and the physician’s Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system. In their efforts to create a seamless process of transmitting electronic results, they typically find challenges in various aspects [...]

Distributing patient test results and/or patient reports is a growing necessity in delivering efficient, connected care. The HL7 Standard is used to facilitate this patient data flow, and there are two elements to consider closely – message routing and message structure. This article is part two of a two part series.

Distributing patient test results and/or patient reports is a growing necessity in delivering efficient, connected care. The HL7 Standard is used to facilitate this patient data flow, and there are two elements to consider closely – message routing and message structure. This article is part one of a two part series.

ELINCS is a specification which constrains HL7 to “standardize” sending lab results to EHRs. This blog post highlights the changes made in the updated ELINCS implementation guide.

The number of HL7 interfaces will grow tremendously over the next few years, driven by HITECH and other healthcare interoperability initiatives. This blog post defines what an HL7 interface is and how to work with HL7 messaging in an effective manner.