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• HL7 Schema Generation Tool

  While looking at my past posts on the topic, I realized I never gave out the link to the download for the HL7 Schema Generation Tools that I discussed waaaaay back. Hopefully the most entrepreneurial readers will have found it, for the rest of us, here it is with a small description from the download page: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=94877261-1F04-40B7-8C6D-CF92F38D09A3&displaylang=en This is the same tool that the BizTalk team uses internally to generate the schemas that ship with Microsoft BizTalk Accelerator for HL7 v2.0. The tool takes the HL7 message definition from the database that HL7 publishes on their web site and generates schemas in a format that the BizTalk HL7 parser can understand. These schemas are used by the parser in the process of translating from the flat file format of HL7 v2.x to XML. The HL7 message definitions are stored in a Microsoft Access database and include definitions for all the approved versions (2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.3.1, 2.4 and 2.5). The HL7 message definition database will not ship with the Accelerator as it is part of the HL7 standard and has to be acquired separately from the HL7 standards organization. By customizing the database and the generated schema namespace, you will be able to create your own library of message definitions for your own integration purposes or for versions of HL7 that we do not include in the Accelerator for HL7. The Schema Generation Tool also comes with full source code. That way it can be adapted to generate the schemas from *any* repository or from tools such as the HL7 Messaging Workbench. The objective of the Schema Generation Tool is to make it easier to manage libraries of HL7 message definitions by working at the model level instead of dealing with schema customization. Every time you need to generate a custom message or segment, you can modify the repository (or a copy of it) and generate new schemas. Just to be clear, you need to have your own HL7 definition database. You can get the “vanilla” version from the HL7 web site. To get it, go to the HL7 Bookstore, scroll down to the section “Access Databases Versions of the HL7 Standards” and click on the “more info” button. The most interesting aspect of the tool is that it allows you to generate schemas from your own HL7 message definition. So, if you have a national HL7 v2 standard (most countries do) and you can put that definition in an easy to maintain database, then generating the BizTalk schemas for any particular HL7 dialect becomes much easier. Another interesting route to explore, and the reason why we’re including the source code, is to adapt the tool to generate the schemas directly from other tools or repositories such as the HL7 Messaging Workbench. Posted Friday, September 19, 2008 6:53 PM from The Healthcare IT Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: BizTalk, HL7v2

• Windows Server 2003 SP2 and The BizTalk Accelerator for HL7 v2.0

  I have seen some posts about the BizTalk Accelerator for HL7 v2.0 not supporting Windows Server 2003 SP2. That seemed very odd to me so I asked the product teams and in fact there was a typo in the Known Issues where something from a previous release of the documentation was left. Friday we posted an updated version of the documentation where the typo has been corrected. The BizTalk Accelerator for HL7 v2.0 *is* supported on Windows Server 2003 SP2, the *minimum* requirement is SP1.  Posted Sunday, November 04, 2007 12:36 PM from The Healthcare IT Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: BizTalk, HL7v2

• Getting Started with HL7 Version 3 and BizTalk Server 2006 (R2)

  After a long gestation period we have finally published the HL7 v3 and BizTalk whitepaper: Getting Started with HL7 v3 and BizTalk Server 2006 This paper provides developers with an overview of HL7 version 3 Messaging (HL7 v3) concepts, how to build HL7 v3 solutions with Microsoft® BizTalk® Server 2006, and how to convert message format from HL7 v3 to HL7 Version 2 Messaging (HL7 v2). Given all the different nuances of HL7 v3, it is somewhat difficult for Microsoft to build a "product", but we're definitely committed to supporting the development of solutions based on HL7 v3 messaging standard on the Microsoft platform. Over the past years we worked very closely with HL7 to make sure that XML best practices and Web Services were included in the development of the standard and at the same time that the Microsoft platform would support HL7's artifacts. The whitepaper analyzes a typical workflow and the steps that are required to make everything work like it should. We have many customers and partners that contributed to the experience that led to the development of this paper. While the paper is by no means meant to be all-encompassing, it definitely gives a good idea and starting point. The scenario that we selected for HL7 v2/v3 interop is based on the IHE ITI Patient Identity Feed transactions for HL7 v2 and HL7 v3. This whitepaper comes with sample code for BizTalk 2006 R2 and the version 2.0 of the BizTalk Accelerator for HL7. If you have not seen it, there is a nice complement to this paper that examines the development of HL7 v2 solutions (although based on v1.3 of the Accelerator for HL7). Posted Wednesday, October 31, 2007 3:47 PM from The Healthcare IT Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: BizTalk, Healthcare Integration, HL7v2, HL7, IHE, HL7v3

• Ordered Message Delivery in BizTalk 2006 R2

  During the past MS-HUG TechForum Stuart hinted to an upcoming whitepaper on ordered delivery patterns on BizTalk 2006 R2. The whitepaper and associated code is now live and can be accessed from the link below: Improving Ordered Message Delivery in BizTalk Server 2006 R2 During Concurrent Processing The solution introduces the notion of a ticket for every message traveling through the processing chain. Business orchestrations can take the necessary time to process the messages in any order. As long as the ticket is propagated in each message, the messages can be re-sequenced on the way out. It is important to define the boundaries of ordered delivery. For this solution, order begins at the BizTalk Server receive port, and the goal is to maintain this order until the messages are sent out of BizTalk Server. Posted Wednesday, October 03, 2007 10:08 AM from The Healthcare IT Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: BizTalk

• MS-HUG TechForum - BizTalk Accelerator for HL7

  Straight from the horse's mouth, Stuart Landrum, Program Manager for the BizTalk Accelerators gave an overview of the new features for the Accelerator for HL7 2.0(A4HL7) in BizTalk 2006 R2. Here they are: New Accelerator Licensing! Support for HL7 v2.5 Support of international characters Support for ordered messaging Enhanced MLLP persistent connection management HL7 Schema Generation Tool BizTalk Mapper behavior enhancements: HL7 v2: Preserving the Order When Mapping a Repeating Sequence Group HL7 v3: Accommodating Schemas with Large Footprints Licensing A little piece of information that might have gone unnoticed is that with the R2 release of BizTalk, all the Accelerators (HL7, HIPAA, Swift, RosettaNet) are going to be free and included in the box! Yes, read again, free. This added to the new licensing models for partners makes the adoption of BizTalk a no-brainer. Support for HL7 v2.5 We have included support for v2.5 of the HL7 Messaging standard. Support for v2.5.1 that just came out of HL7 is not included as it did not make the cut in time. For people in a hurry to implement 2.5.1 there is still hope, keep reading. International Characters In version 2.0 of the A4HL7 we have extended support for international characters: 8859/1, 8859/2, 8859/3, 8859/4, 8859/5, 8859/6, 8859/7, 8859/8, 8859/9, ASCII and UNICODE (single, double, and 3-byte UNICODE character sets)except for JAS2020 and JIS X 0202 which are Japanese character sets with non-standard UNICODE encoding. Support for Ordered Messaging We have extended the support for ordered messaging already present in BizTalk 2006 to the MLLP adapter in v2.0 of the A4HL7. In addition to this support we are also releasing a whitepaper for more complex scenarios based on the concept of Ticket Dispenser and Gatekeeper. Enhanced MLLP Connection Management One of the funny things about MLLP is that it is sooo simple, yet pretty much everyone out there has a different take on how it should be implemented. We have added functionality to more finely tune how connection management is handled in MLLP. HL7 Schema Generation Tool I have talked about this before and there is not a lot to add. The tool allows you to implement versions of HL7 v2.x that we have not included in the box (hint, hint) by working directly with the models that are stored in the Microsoft Access database that is published by HL7. BizTalk Mapper Enhancements In order to address the issues with mapping HL7 v2 messages we have added a flag to the map file that will add additional logic to the XSLT generated by the Mapper to prevent the order of the HL7 segments from changing. The other couple of issues that we addressed with the Mapper are more related to HL7 Version 3 and deal with the complexities of those schemas. For full details on the changes have a look at Stuart's presentation on my SkyDrive: Note: for details on how to get XPS working on your system, check my previous post. Posted Wednesday, August 22, 2007 12:54 PM from The Healthcare IT Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: BizTalk, Healthcare Integration, Events, HL7v2, HL7, MS-HUG

• HL7 Accelerator v3?

  We have not even shipped Version 2.0 of the HL7 Accelerator for BizTalk that Tom is already thinking ahead and posting a whish list for v3. Some of the issues he outlines are already addressed in v1.3, others will in v2: 1.1, this is addressed in v1.3 and v2.0 by a flag you need to set on the party trading with you. 2, this is going to be alleviated by including the Schema Generation tool in v2.0 of the Accelerator. 6.1, integration with the HL7 MWB (link might be accessible to HL7 members only) is possible by customizing the Schema Generation tool to accept input from MWB instead of the HL7 message definitions database. So, what would you like to see in the HL7 Accelerator v3? BTW, yes, I'm back from vacation and I have a lot of news to share over the next week or two, keep checking back :-) Posted Saturday, August 04, 2007 2:47 PM from The Healthcare IT Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: BizTalk, HL7v2, HL7

• Health Connection Engine 2.1.1 Released to CodePlex

  We have released version 2.1.1 of the Health Connection Engine to CodePlex. The release addresses a few issues we identified in setup and the Deployment Guide and some security and performance warning raised by FxCop. From the project description: "The Health Connection Engine facilitates the interoperability between these multiple systems by abstracting the interfaces used to connect them and by providing a rich and extensible adapter framework." As usual we welcome any feedback you might have on HCE. We're thinking about the next version and the two topics that came up in our heads are support for WCF and integration with the Microsoft ESB Guidance. What do you think? Posted Thursday, June 14, 2007 2:50 PM from The Healthcare IT Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: BizTalk, Healthcare Integration, CHF, HCE, SOA

• HL7 v2 Developer Guide

  We just published a new whitepaper that provides some specific guidance on HL7 Version 2 development with the BizTalk Accelerator. The whitepaper deals with: Configuring a minimal HL7 solution for testing purposes Customizing HL7 v2 schemas (yeah!) Creating *new* HL7 v2 messages Mapping of HL7 data, including controlling the order of mapped elements in the resulting message Controlling the order of the flow of HL7 messages through BizTalk The whitepaper also provides instructions on how to configure your solutions to accomplish the steps above. Check it out on the Microsoft Downloads web site. Posted Friday, June 08, 2007 7:37 PM from The Healthcare IT Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: BizTalk, HL7v2, HL7

• EDI Support in BizTalk 2006 R2 (HIPAA and More...)

  The BizTalk/EDI team just started blogging about the new features for EDI in BizTalk Server 2006 R2. This includes support for the traditional EDI dialects (EDIFACT and X12) as well as more specific industry support with 16 transactions for HIPAA X12N (12 mandated transactions plus a few accessory ones). Check them out and start asking questions :-) Posted Monday, October 16, 2006 2:10 PM from The Healthcare IT Blog | 1 Comments Filed under: BizTalk

• Must Read for Any BizTalk Developer

  Although not healthcare specific, it's still worth checking out the new BizTalk Server 2006 Developer's Troubleshooting Guide published on the BizTalk Server Developer Center. Anyone doing any serious BizTalk development with HL7 v2, v3 and other healthcare standards (HIPAA, CDISC, ASTM CCR, HL7 CDA...) will benefit from the paper. Go get it. Now. Seriously. Posted Friday, September 15, 2006 5:46 PM from The Healthcare IT Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: BizTalk

• Eric Blogs on BizTalk and HL7 v2

  I just came across Eric's Blog about BizTalk and the HL7 Accelerator. A great resource for those of you implementing HL7 v2 on the Microsoft platform. Posted Saturday, July 22, 2006 6:01 AM from The Healthcare IT Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: BizTalk, Healthcare Integration