HL7 Training and Certification
Updated: This post lead to a number of requests for HL7 and Iguana Training. We’ve recently updated our website to offer online registration for both and more information can be found here: Iguana and HL7 Training Last week I had the pleasure of traveling to Boston, Massachusetts to attend the HL7 Educational Summit. The summit and the […]
Up for Air after HIMSS
HIMSS was a blast – I’m just back into the swing of things again in Toronto. For the last two weeks I’ve been busy interviewing developers – I guess I ought to delegate that task. But the choice of people you hire seems to be one of the most important things one can do in […]
Leaving for HIMSS
We’re packed and ready to fly to Chicago for HIMSS ’09. We’ll be presenting the Iguana HL7 Interface Engine v4 from Sunday through Wednesday. So, if you’re in town – and at the conference – why not stop by booth #4909 and spend a little time with us? Whether you’re coming to see the […]
Understanding HL7 Messages
What are HL7 messages? HL7 Messages are used to transfer electronic data between disparate healthcare systems. Each HL7 message sends information about a particular event such as a patient admission. This section describes the contents of an HL7 message and how an HL7 message is organized. The following topics are covered: The components of an […]
HL7 Delimiter Characters
As you have seen in the previous sections, certain special characters separate one composite in a segment from another, or separate one sub-composite from another. These special characters are known as delimiter characters. This section describes delimiter characters in more detail, how to use escape characters to include a delimiter character as part of a […]
Delimiter Escape Sequences
If an HL7 message contains one of the special delimiter characters as part of its message content, you can use a special escape sequence to specify the delimiter character. This ensures that any application that processes HL7 messages can always distinguish between a delimiter character and a character that is part of the message text. […]
Determining the HL7 Message Type
Each HL7 message is of a particular message type. This HL7 message type indicates what health-related information is being provided in this message. The message type also determines what segments can be included as part of the message. To determine the message type of an HL7 message, examine its MSH segment. The message type is […]
Repeating and Optional Segments
Some HL7 message types allow a segment to be repeated one or more times, or allow a segment to be optionally present. For example, repeating segments are useful for messages that contain contact information, as they make it possible to provide more than one contact. For instance, multiple NK1 (Next of Kin) segments may be […]
Custom Segments: HL7 Z-segments
If an HL7 message contains customized data that cannot be included in any segment that is defined for its message type, you can create a custom segment to transmit this data. By convention, all custom segments begin with the letter Z. For example, a ZPD segment could be created to contain customized patient demographics information. […]
Present but Null Fields
In segments, it is important to note that there is a difference between fields that have no value defined for them and fields that have a null value defined for them. If a field is not defined, there is nothing between the two | characters that delimit the field: OBR||||||||| A null value is indicated […]
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