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Why Use an HL7 Engine?

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There are two primary methods of moving clinical data in a hospital or clinic:

  1. Point-to-point interfacing, which provides a direct connection between exactly two applications
  2. Interface engine interfacing, which provides a way to leverage a set of interfaces between many applications

The presence of an HL7 interface engine in a healthcare environment gives more control to an organization and saves money and time by:

  • Reducing the required number of export and import endpoints
  • Allowing for reuse of data between applications
  • Providing an easier method to interface a new or replaced application
  • Providing the ability to monitor the entire system at one time
  • Providing the ability to proactively notify interested persons using visual display and e-mail, when problems arise

Facilities that are pursuing healthcare integration initiatives and use an interface engine model find that:

  • It is much less expensive and takes less time to initially implement an interface because an engine allows for leveraging of data and an engine is flexible in its acceptance of data
  • The cost and time required to add new or replace existing applications is frequently less than half that required in a point-to-point model
  • It requires considerably less time and money to maintain and monitor the interfaces because of the availability of centralized monitoring

There is an excellent 22 page white paper on this website entitled, “Why Do I Need an Interface Engine? Evaluating Two Approaches: Point-to-Point and Interface Engine.” It discusses the pros and cons of these two approaches in detail. Specifically, the white paper provides details on how an HL7 integration engine provides more control and saves time and money in a clinical or healthcare environment. The paper includes a comparison of an interfaced environment using point-to-point communications and an interfaced environment using an interface engine.

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Dave Shaver

Dave Shaver is the CTO for Corepoint Health. Dave has more than 20 years experience in training, consulting, and software development. He’s deeply involved in the HL7 standards community, including co-chair of HL7 Infrastructure and Messaging committee and co-chair of the HL7 FHIR Governance Board.