HL7 messaging and interfaces

HL7 is the healthcare industry “standard” for computer messaging between software systems and its latest version 3 is based upon XML.

HL7 interface applications generally listen for HL7 messages sent on a TCP/IP port via  HL7’s standard Lower Layer Protocol (LLP).

Some useful links:

• HL7.org – Health Level 7 – the main body that oversees development of the standard
• HL7.org.au – the Australian chapter of the HL7 body
• HL7 standards
• Australian Healthcare Messaging Laboratory (AHML) – Online HL7 Message Testing and Certification
• HL7 on wikipedia
• HL7 101 – a beginner’s tutorial posted by For the Record magazine
• introduction to HL7 by hl7.com
• iNTERFACEWARE’s blog on HL7 with tutorials
• iNTERFACEWARE’s Iguana HL7 interface software demo (nice video showing the basics of receiving HL7 message and converting into records ina database)
• iNTERFACEWARE’s Chameleon HL7 toolkit for Java, Delphi, C++, C#, .NET, VB, etc
• health-level-7.com – blog
• The Healthcare IT Interoperability Blog
• HL7 Watch – Blog; critical review of HL7
• Medical-Objects – Queensland-based HL7 messaging software
• Kestral HL7Connect – Australian HL7 messaging software (?based on Delphi)
• Health Management Systems (HMS) – Victorian based ambulatory care software and scheduler with HL7 software (?Delphi)