People still joke about how the government overpays for simple things like a hammer or toilet seat. But the military has conducted several fund-worthy improvement projects. One in particular, VPX, has delved into the fact that computer manufacturers and the military had built several types of computer boards and other equipment that could not communicate with the other. After VPX and later OpenVPX standards were developed, it became possible to save costs and allow communications equipment to interoperate.
With the proprietary nature of healthcare data along with the heightened awareness around privacy and security, creating interoperability among healthcare solutions has been very similar to the military’s dilemma of finding a way to get the products that they built to talk to one another. Enter Health Level Seven International (HL7) with the mission of providing standards “for interoperability that improve care delivery, optimize workflow, reduce ambiguity and enhance knowledge transfer…” And the new age of HL7 integration begins.
Pioneering integration vendors seized the standards around HL7 integration and developed the HL7 interface engine. The concept built upon the idea of extensibility. Because so many PMS, HIS, EMR, LIS and ERP systems exist, a middle tier was created to translate the source system and convert each into HL7 standards. When the source system is upgraded to support HL7, the HL7 interface engine will switch over without programming, since it is data and format aware.
Although many vendors boast HL7 interface capabilities, the best of breed vendors implement their solutions with no programming, allowing system configuration from a GUI where integration is accomplished with point and click.
HL7 messaging is another level of integration allowing information, Continue Reading, commands and alerts to flow between systems that some vendors can achieve at multiple levels either through HTTP, FTP, HL7/X12, File HL7, Web, or Web services.
Getting out of the development rut and integrating with HL7-compliant tools can save money and drastically reduce the implementation cycle.
Read more to Learn About HL7 Interface Integration