HL7 V2 to FHIR integration

The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), Ottawa, Ontario to connect their Epic HIS to the Ocean eReferral Network, which allows healthcare providers to securely send electronic referrals in real-time to CHEO and other hospitals while keeping patients informed.

MDI Solutions provides their integration engine software, MD Link, and interface development and support services to connect internal and external systems at CHEO. As the Ocean eReferral system required data exchange using the HL7 FHIR standard and CHEO’s HIS install is deployed using HL7 V2, MDI was engaged to use MD Link to connect the differing data formats.  Some of the key FHIR to/from V2 interface-build requirements included:

• Create patient or match existing patient for new referrals into Epic
• Manage both discrete and non-discrete data in referral requests
• Process Provider add-on messages – text strings or file attachments
• Send status and booking updates from Epic to Ocean

Due to the complexity of the integration, the project also required Epic Bridges (Epic’s internal communication layer) expertise, so MDI assigned a Bridges-certified integration resources to the  project, who coordinated the interface workflow design and development to and from Epic, and assisted CHEO staff with coordinating testing of the Epic clinical applications.  The eReferral project Go-Live is set for March 30, 2022.

The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), www.cheo.on.ca, is a pediatric health and research center providing outstanding family-centered patient care, pioneering breakthrough research, and training the health care professionals of tomorrow. CHEO houses the Provincial Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health and the Ontario Newborn Screening Program. CHEO’s large service area includes Ottawa, Eastern Ontario, Western Quebec, Nunavut and parts of Northern Ontario.