Inbound and Outbound Integrations
We have the most comprehensive EHR integration model in the industry. Our core integration is built using Microsoft BizTalk Sever (BTS), embedded with our edge servers as well as the core HIE infrastructure. BTS is deployed at tens of thousands of customer locations as the integration engine of choice. This solution supports various message formats out of the box including HIPAA EDI, HL7 2.x, HL7 3.0, CDA etc at a very reasonable price point. This is especially relevant when the HIE Operator integrates with smaller physician offices, because they will be price sensitive.
We have pre-built adapters built for dozens of systems through our involvement in various projects. We provide the most comprehensive solution in the industry. All HIE adapters have the following components:
- Integration Engine
- Adapter Services
- Data Cleansing Services
- Data Transformation Services
- Security Services
- Transport security
- Outbound Interfaces
- Inbound Interfaces
- User Interface Integration
- Transactions
- Over 30 HL7 triggers including demographics, allergies, medications, lab results, radiology reports, etc.
- Standards support
- HL7 v2.x
- CCD
- CCR
- CDA Version 2
- HL7 V3
Building a New Set of Adapters
We have a specification document that we provide to third-party systems vendors to build a new set of Adapters. Essentially, this is an HL7 interface implementation guide with which many vendors in the HIT community are already very familiar. In addition, a variety of Amalga UIS and HealthVault interfaces are publicly documented or in the process of being documented and available on http://msdn.microsoft.com.
Adapter Framework API
The elegance of our solution is that we require very few changes from third-party EHR vendors. We take the HL7 they typically generate and can work with it. As an example, we recently started leading five different EHR vendors to follow a standardized HL7 implementation guide. We have the most relevant experience in the State of Maryland in building interfaces to major EHR systems and our HIE. Case in point – Interface and adapter work we did at LifeBridge Health, St. Agnes Hospital, Erickson Health.
In a recent development, our HIE customer e-Health Network of Long Island invited 5 major EHR vendors to attend vendor fairs to demonstrate the solution and their roadmap for interoperability with our HIE solution. These vendor fairs were organized across major health systems on Long Island. This unique partnership between the HIE core services provider and the EHR vendors will bring to market unique capabilities of seamless interoperability that is really what is needed to achieve the national goals around HIT’s positive impact on the nation’s health.
We support various models of integration of EHRs with the HIE. Here are some examples of the models we support.
- Event-driven service interfaces
- Multiple protocols and standards (including legacy HL7)
- Client API technologies
- Message oriented middleware
- Asynchronous, loosely coupled interfaces
- User Interface plug-in into EHR system
- Single sign-on integration
- File system based integration (e.g. the 3rd party system picks up and drops off from file folders)
- Database level integration
- Batched data (multiple records are exported or imported using a single large batch file following standardized formatting)
Adapter services and interfacing services are essential functions of the Edge Servers as Edge Servers are the real touch point between EHRs and the HIE. We would like to caution that not all Edge Servers are built the same even if they comply with IHE standards. E.g. IHE does not specify requirements at the adapter level. Our Edge Servers are built to support standards, yet offer far superior functionality to handle these types of requirements.