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)