KEYWORDS:
HL7, immunization registry, VAERS, Vaccine Inventory, web applications, HL7 LLP
BACKGROUND:
In 2002, an experienced team of Immunization Registry developers at QS Technologies investigated the feasibility of designing a commercial multi-tiered Immunization Registry application based solely on HL7 2.3.1 and the HL7 LLP as the communications protocol between application tiers.
OBJECTIVE(S):
The goal was to investigate the maturity of existing HL7 Immunization Registry guidelines and to determine the feasibility of using HL7 in a commercial multi-tiered application development project.
METHOD(S):
To test feasibility, a complete Immunization Registry application would be built and submitted to stress and scalability tests. The project would include a native HL7 Registry engine using a commercial HL7 parser and a web server application that communicated with the registry via HL7. FTP access was also to be provided. The application would implement secure browser-based Internet immunization data entry for private providers, interface to private provider systems and other registries, printing school certificates, immunization recommendations, registry administration, immunization inventory, contraindications, statistical reporting and adverse event (VAERS) submission.
RESULT(S):
A commercial application was developed that met the design criteria.
CONCLUSIONS(S):
While a small portion of the total data set necessary for a complete registry application is still not well-defined in the HL7 standard, HL7 can serve as the low-level protocol between application tiers in a commercial product. To support some functions (particularly reporting), elements from the HL7 2.4 standard are required.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Understand the critical decision points in developing multi-tiered software applications for immunization registries using HL7, learn general HL7 concepts and interfacing options.
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