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HL7 Interfacing

The iEHR platform offers a highly customizable HL7 interfacing engine, serving as an alternative to Mirth or Corepoint. This engine allows developers to produce and consume HL7 feeds from legacy healthcare applications, such as EHRs, LIS, RIS/PACS, billing systems, and more.

Overview​

HL7 feeds are streams of electronic health data transmitted between healthcare systems using the Health Level Seven (HL7) standards. These feeds facilitate the real-time exchange of clinical and administrative information, such as patient demographics, lab results, billing data, and treatment records. HL7 interfaces are common in healthcare and widely supported by legacy EHRs, RIS/PACS systems, lab instruments, and more.

Common HL7 Feeds​

  • Admission, Discharge, and Transfer (ADT) Feeds: Manage patient movement within healthcare facilities.

  • Observation/Results (OBX) Feeds: Transmit diagnostic results.

  • Scheduling Information Unsolicited (SIU) Feeds: Handle scheduling information.

Consuming Feeds​

  • Identity Management (ADT): Check if the patient demographic exists and create a new record if not.

  • Diagnostics Results (ORU): Store lab test results in the datastore.

  • Schedule-Driven Workflow (SIU): Prompt patients to complete onboarding when a new appointment is scheduled.

Publishing Feeds​

  • Discharge Notification (ADT): Trigger an event when a patient is discharged.

  • Diagnostic Orders (ORM): Place lab test orders.

  • Schedule Display (SIU): Publish scheduling events for consumption by other organizations.

Connecting to Legacy Systems​

HL7 V2 messaging format, released in 1987, predates HTTPS and is not natively encrypted. iEHR supports several methods for securely capturing HL7 at the edge:

  • iEHR Agent: Installed on the local network, acting as a bi-directional bridge between applications.

  • File-Based HL7 Integrations: Use SFTP to drop HL7 messages as files, which can then be parsed and processed by iEHR bots.

  • HL7 Aggregators: Aggregate and manage HL7 messages from multiple sources.

Getting Started​

  1. Identify the HL7 feeds you want to publish or consume.

  2. Choose the method to connect to the legacy application.

  3. Write the bot and create the necessary subscriptions to set up your workflow.

  4. Test your implementation to ensure data flow is as expected.

For more detailed information, feel free to contact us .