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Been working in the HL7 integration trenches and solving tough problems?

Have a great tip for HL7 analysts and other members of the healthcare integration community?

Now’s your chance to share.

We’re working on putting together a new reference guide called The HL7 Survival Guide, for healthcare integration analysts and developers.

Why an HL7 Survival Guide?

There is great documentation from HL7 International and solid training available for new HL7 analysts and developers. But once you’ve got the basics under your belt, where do you [...]

Definition

Interface Black Box Syndrome is characterized by lack of visibility into the critical details that can hurt an interface. It can affect any hospital IT leader who is responsible for interfacing, but the most susceptible are dependent on 3rd parties and/or consultants. Fortunately, Interface Black Box Syndrome is treatable, and there are ways to reduce the risk that the syndrome will recur.

Symptoms

The signs and symptoms are almost always chronic and sub-acute. But they can explode into a world of expensive [...]

Implementing or upgrading HIT systems and applications doesn’t mean much these days if they remain data islands unto themselves. Interfacing is the key to connectivity. But far too many teams rely on the drawn-out iterative processes of trial and error to get their interfaces created and tested. With interface counts reaching into the hundreds per hospital, your organization must find a way to get leaner and do more with less.

We’re sponsoring an educationally focused webinar where you’ll hear from CIOs [...]

Here are some of the most common issues I’ve come across when speaking with newly appointed hospital IT leaders faced with interfacing and integration issues.

1. I have hundreds of HL7 interfaces already (I think), and I am being asked to clean house. Where do I start? Start by inventorying your interfaces. Get a sense of how many interfaces are out there and document the systems they connect.

2. Are my interface consultants providing me with all documentation I am entitled to? [...]

Caristix was selected to present at Interconnected Health 2012 recently, and we focused on a new concept, HL7 Interface Lifecycle Management.

Up till now, there’s been a sort of unspoken assumption in the industry: interfacing is a linear event based on simple drag-and-drop configuration within an interface engine. However, if you look at all of the tasks that are involved in interfacing, it is far more helpful to model interfacing as a lifecycle.

Here’s why.

HL7 provides a framework to support the process [...]

Implementing systems doesn’t mean much these days if they remain data islands unto themselves, but far too many teams rely on the drawn-out iterative processes of trial and error to get their interfaces created and tested. With so many connections at play, your organization must find a way to get leaner and do more with less. We’re sponsoring an educationally focused webinar on this topic. You’ll hear from CIOs who have blasted away key bottlenecks in integration, leaving them able [...]

One of the things we realized when we formed Caristix is that the biggest pitfall in HL7 interfacing isn’t coding or setting up the interface. With modern interface engines, that’s relatively easy. The real struggle is knowing how a system is constructed, where the gaps are, and what needs to be coded – this drives the work. In fact, when this scoping is handled effectively, all other aspects of interface creation and management go well. But when this stage is [...]

Typically, when you start an interfacing project, there’s a getting-your-feet-wet stage. “Where’s the MRN in that feed? Does it have leading zeros? Who’s got the lab codes? What do the z-segments contain?” There are a whole lot of questions at this stage. One question cascades into another. You check the interface documentation. Then send an email. And pretty soon, you’re in the deep end, with scope creep, a runaway timeline, and very little real data (read: specifications and test messages) [...]

Healthcare IT blog HIStalk featured Caristix in a series on innovative companies developing technology products for hospitals, providers, and others in healthcare.

Here’s what one of our users at a major HIT vendor had to say about Caristix technology when he was interviewed for the article:

What problems have you solved using Caristix products and what impact has that had on your organization?

We are seeking ways to continuously improve our customer enablement process for our product. An activity in that process is [...]

This week’s roundup covers enterprise data modeling, a possible slowdown in the Meaningful Use timeline, a new HIE software release, and interoperability.

Enterprise Data Modeling: 7 Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make via www.information-management.com This article isn’t healthcare-specific, but there are several good pointers for architects working in IDNs and HIEs — any healthcare integration initiative, as a matter of fact. Key takeaway: a data model has to reflect business needs and be transparent. Easier said than done.

Federal Health IT Panel [...]