Part

Supporting CDA in Clinical Applications, Part 2: XML and HTML Rendering

March 9, 2011

Software vendors in the healthcare space likely have interfaces in their systems that are capable of receiving HL7 2.x messages and processing that data through an application. In Part 1 of this series, I explained how a section in the xml allows developers to write applications to make use of the coded elements. (A patient’s [...]

Read the full article →

Supporting CDA in Clinical Applications, Part 1: Introduction

March 2, 2011

If you are a software vendor in the healthcare space, it is likely you have interfaces in your systems that are capable of receiving HL7 2.x messages and processing that data into your application.  Application vendors get to pick and choose which message types and triggers they support, as well as how much of the [...]

Read the full article →

The Brave New World of Middleware – Part 4

February 21, 2011

Part 4: The failed promise of graphical mapping In the first post of this blog series, Re-thinking Integration, I explained how I have spent a great deal of time examining my assumptions about what middleware needs to deliver. At the forefront of my original assumptions was my belief that the majority of mapping could be [...]

Read the full article →

The Brave New World of Middleware – Part 5

February 18, 2011

Part 5: Redesigning the Modern Interface Engine As HIMSS is right around the corner, I’m growing increasingly excited to showcase Iguana v5: our redesign of the modern interface engine. In previous posts in this blog series, I’ve explored the headaches faced by integration engineers, the complexities in the economics of integration and the failed promise [...]

Read the full article →

The Brave New World of Middleware – Part 3

February 12, 2011

Part 3: The Integration Engineer An old friend and customer of mine once told me that the two most important tools in his job as an integration engineer were Iguana and his phone but not in that order. The majority of his time was spent talking to his customers to determine the requirements needed to [...]

Read the full article →

The Brave New World of Middleware – Part 1

February 6, 2011

Part 1: Re-thinking Integration There is a great deal of excitement around the offices of iNTERFACEWARE these days and I wanted to personally reach out to you and explain what all the buzz is about. Over the past few years, I have invested a great deal of time and energy into re-thinking my assumptions about [...]

Read the full article →

The Brave New World of Middleware – Part 2

February 4, 2011

Part 2: It’s all about economics There is an old joke I enjoy, that I think has a lot of relevance to software. There was a guy who always cut his pot roast in half before cooking it. His wife was curious as to why he always did it that way. He replied that this [...]

Read the full article →

Demographics: HL7 vs. Reality. Part 1 – Marital Status

December 5, 2010

First in a series on  HL7 and Demographics from Bill Hogan.   When it comes to demographic information, the conventional wisdom is that things like gender, race, marital status, birth date, etc. are fairly simple things to represent and collect. It should, then, be of little trouble to standardize demographic information, especially since demographic data have [...]

Read the full article →

Demographics: HL7 vs. Reality. Part 2 – Gender

December 2, 2010

(The second in a series of posts by William Hogan) In my last post I showed, on the basis of the example of marital status, how standardization of demographic information is challenging and how typical information-modeling techniques fail to help the problem.  In this post, I show how HL7 handles gender. Again, we will see difficulties for standardization. Additionally, [...]

Read the full article →

The Health Story Project and Health Level Seven International to Host Webinar on How to Exchange Basic Records and Meet Early Meaningful Use Requirements (Part II)

November 21, 2010

Health Level Seven (HL7) International, the global authority for interoperability and standards in healthcare information technology, and the Health Story Project, a collaborative of healthcare vendors, providers and associations, will present a complimentary webinar on Wednesday, December 1 from 10:00 – 11:00 am ET to discuss how healthcare providers can exchange basic records and meet [...]

Read the full article →

Optimizing Your Data Integrity Model – Part 2

November 19, 2010

Finding a balance in your interface testing and monitoring approach that proactively utilizes both features is instrumental if you seek to ensure the quality of data you transfer to external applications. GEN I Feed

Read the full article →

Optimizing Your Data Integrity Model – Part 1

November 17, 2010

Demand for healthcare interfaces is rising, and there is a rapid pace in which healthcare entities are working to connect various internal applications and external resources. Without the right data integrity model, the confidence in the deployed interfaces will be low, and the support costs will be high. Clinical data not received properly, or received [...]

Read the full article →

Part 1: State of Radiology, Interview with Joe Moore, CIO, RCI

October 11, 2010

What is going on right now in radiology? In general across the industry, there seems to be a lot of consolidation of groups. I think the big concerns, or what people are focusing on, is the ability to provide 24/7 service, subspecialty capabilities, and being able to even out the workflow. There is a lot [...]

Read the full article →

Part 2: HIE Activity & Radiology, Interview with Joe Moore, CIO, RCI

October 7, 2010

Do you have any plans to participate in the Iowa HIE? We were recently approached by the state of Iowa to participate in a beta program for assessing readiness. We are already participating at the ground floor level of the Iowa health information exchange (HIE) through the Iowa Department of Public Health, the IDPH. We [...]

Read the full article →

Part 3: HITECH & Radiology, Interview with Joe Moore, CIO, RCI

October 4, 2010

How is HITECH and Meaningful Use impacting your radiology operations? When you look at the requirements of meaningful use most specialists are completely cut out. Radiologists don’t order prescriptions in the traditional sense. They might order contrast for a CT exam, but not a prescription. In all of our electronic systems, we have no way [...]

Read the full article →

Part 4: Integration & Radiology, Interview with Joe Moore, CIO, RCI

October 3, 2010

What has your experience been like using an integration engine? It’s been spectacular. I’ve said it many times before, without the integration engine, we wouldn’t be nearly as successful as we are today. We wouldn’t have nearly the amount of information to help us do our work today. The fact that we were able to [...]

Read the full article →

Part 5: The Radiology Economy, Interview with Joe Moore, CIO, RCI

October 2, 2010

How has the economy impacted the radiology industry? We’re like everybody else; we’re getting hammered both from the government and from the payers. The payers have the deck stacked in their favor, of course, both by the government and by themselves just with their sheer size and lack of competition. It has nothing to do [...]

Read the full article →

Part 4: Integration & Radiology, Interview with Joe Moore, CIO, RCI

September 30, 2010

What has your experience been like using an integration engine? It’s been spectacular. I’ve said it many times before, without the integration engine, we wouldn’t be nearly as successful as we are today. We wouldn’t have nearly the amount of information to help us do our work today. The fact that we were able to [...]

Read the full article →

Part 2: HIE Activity & Radiology, Interview with Joe Moore, CIO, RCI

September 29, 2010

Do you have any plans to participate in the Iowa HIE? We were recently approached by the state of Iowa to participate in a beta program for assessing readiness. We are already participating at the ground floor level of the Iowa health information exchange (HIE) through the Iowa Department of Public Health, the IDPH. We [...]

Read the full article →