This article will describe and include an example of how to embed an external PDF file into an HL7 segment, specifically ADT_A01:2.3.1 OBX(). This can be useful when attempting to insert pictures or other external data into an HL7 message. In this example, the name of the PDF file to be embedded is provided in the incoming HL7 message in OBX(1):ObservationValue field.

In the previous article, we've seen the structure of one of the most used types of HL7 message - ADT (Admit, Discharge, Transfer) and an example of ADT^A04 with the description of all its fields. Now let's look at another flow of data having to do with ordering and fulfilling the orders of tests. I'm talking about ORM (as of version 2.5 you should use specific messages to order tests, like OMG, OML, OMD, OMS, OMN, OMI, and OMP), ORL and ORU messages. In a very simplified case, the exchange of data may look like this.

Let's look at these messages in more detail.

A "big" or "small" ask for ChatGPT?

I tried OpenAI GPT's coding model a couple of weeks ago, to see whether it can do e.g. some message transformations between healthcare protocols. It surely "can", to a seemingly fair degree.

EnsLib.HL7.Message.cls provides many API methods for manipulating an HL7 message. RemoveSegmentAt(), for example, can be used to remove a segment by path or index, but only one segment at a time. There may be times that you'll need to remove all segments within a group or even many groups of segments from the HL7 message. Surely you can iterate through each segment in each group and remove them one by one, but there's a much easier way.

With just one command, like below, you can remove all OBX segments in an ORU_R01 message (msg):

This is a sample Ensemble/Health Connect production which demonstrates how to receive an HL7 order (ORM) inbound from a file, extract fields (in this case, basic demographic information), and insert those into a table in an external SQL database via ODBC.

Included in the zip file:

• Exported code
• Sample ORM message
• 'How to configure' doc

HL7 (Health Level 7) is a set of technical specifications for computerized exchanges of clinical, financial and administrative data between hospital information systems (HIS). These specifications are variously integrated into the corpus of formal American (ANSI) and international (ISO) standards.

The L7 of HL7 indicates that it is a standard that operates at layer 7, in other words at the application layer, of the OSI model. This means that HL7 does not have to take into account exchange security considerations, or those of message transport (this being ensured by lower-level layers such as SSL/TLS for security or TCP for the transport of data for example). To be more precise, layer 7 supports communications for end-user processes and applications and the presentation of data for user-facing software applications. As the highest layer of the OSI model, and the closest to the end user, layer 7 provides application-specific functions such as identifying communication partners and the quality of service between them, determining resource availability, considering privacy and user authentication, and synchronizing communication, as well as connecting the application to the lower levels of the OSI model.

Returning to the HL7 standard, the HL7 version 2 standard (also known as Pipehat) was originally created in 1989 but is still being used and updated regularly, resulting in versions 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.3.1, 2.4, 2.5, 2.5.1, 2.6, 2.7, 2.7.1, 2.8, 2.8.1, 2.8.2 and 2.9. The v2.x standards are backward compatible (e.g., a message based on version 2.3 will be understood by an application that supports version 2.6) and in higher versions, you will see some fields are left just for it.

Despite it being more than 30 years old, HL7v2 remains the most widely used healthcare interface standard by a large margin according to the HL7.org portal that tells that:

Over the years, I have found myself needing to create multiple HL7 messages based on a single inbound message. Usually these take the form of an order or result from a lab. Each time I have approached it, I have tried to start from scratch under the belief that the previous attempt could have been done better.

InterSystems and Intel recently conducted a series of benchmarks combining InterSystems IRIS with 2nd Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors, also known as “Cascade Lake”, and Intel® Optane™ DC Persistent Memory (DCPMM). The goals of these benchmarks are to demonstrate the performance and scalability capabilities of InterSystems IRIS with Intel’s latest server technologies in various workload settings and server configurations. Along with various benchmark results, three different use-cases of Intel DCPMM with InterSystems IRIS are provided in this report.

(Originally posted by @Ben Spead on June 25, 2014)

This code snippet generates a list of Ensemble Lookup Tables and Schema documents in the user's current namespace. Run the code by running the class method "test":

Class benspead.EnsTablesSchema
{
    classmethod test() {
        If ##class(%Dictionary.CompiledClass).%ExistsId("Ens.Util.LookupTableDocument") {
            // only supported in Ensemble 2012.1+
            Write !,!,"Exporting Ensemble Lookup Tables..."
            Set sc = $$$OK
            Set rs = ##class(%ResultSet).%New("Ens.Util.LookupTableDocument:List")
            Do rs.Execute()
            While rs.Next() {
                Set item=rs.Data("name")
                Write "document found: "_ item,!
            }
            Do rs.Close()
            Set rs=""
        }
        If ##class(%Dictionary.CompiledClass).%ExistsId("EnsLib.HL7.SchemaDocument") {
            Write !,!,"Exporting Ensemble HL7 Schemas..."
            Set sc = $$$OK
            Set rs = ##class(%ResultSet).%New("EnsLib.HL7.SchemaDocument:List")
            Do rs.Execute()
            While rs.Next() {
                Set item=rs.Data("name")
                Continue:$listfind($lb("2.1.HL7","2.2.HL7","2.3.HL7","2.4.HL7","2.5.HL7","2.6.HL7","2.7.HL7","2.3.1.HL7","2.5.1.HL7","2.7.1.HL7","ITK.HL7")
                                    ,item)
                Write "document found: "_ item,!
            }
            Do rs.Close()
            Set rs=""
        }
    }
}

Here's a link to the code on GitHub: https://github.com/intersystems-community/code-snippets/blob/master/src/...

Introduction

Say you have a receiving system that accepts HL7 and provides error messages in field ERR:3.9 in the ACK it returns. You require a different reply code action depending on the error message, however the Reply Code Actions settings for the operation do not provide this level of granularity. One option could be to create a process that takes the ACK and then completes the action you were expecting, however things can get a bit messy if the action is to retry the message, especially when trying to view a message trace.

Hi Everyone,

Link to webinar recording: https://learning.intersystems.com/course/view.php?id=623

Thank you for your interest in this webinar!

Please submit questions about the content of the webinar as comments below this article.

This post is intended to share how we have implemented HL7 v.2.x in XML format in several Ensemble projects.

We have added to our local InterSystems Iberia GitHub repository a package which uses an approach that takes advantage of EnsLib.HL7.Message class.

More information here:

https://github.com/intersystems-ib/Ensemble-HL7-XML

Sometimes we need to convert FHIR message to HL7 V2, e.g. to register a patient to the PACS system.
In this article, I will explain the steps to achieve the desired by using IRIS FHIR Server production.

Below are the steps we need to follow:

1. Make sure FHIRServer production is started.
2. Register Business Service with FHIRServer endpoint.
3. Define Business Processes to convert FHIR message to SDA and then Convert SDA to HL7 v2.
4. Post JSON resource to FHIRServer endpoint and get HL7 V2 response.

Let's review the steps in detail.

Step 1. Make sure FHIRServer production is started

Open the production page and make sure Production is started. In the next step, we need to make sure business service HS.FHIRServer.Interop.Service is registered with FHIRServer

Written in reply to community post for can Python create HL7 Message dynamically.

Pre-requisites and setup

Use an integration enabled namespace.
Note: USER namespace is not enabled for interoperability by default.
If following suggest create a new interoperatibility namespace to explore functionality.

# Switch to
ZN "[Interoperability Namespace Name]"

# Launch interactive Python shell:
Do $SYSTEM.Python.Shell()