I first started thinking about the handling of HL7 3.0 XML messages when I got involved with a GotDotNet open community project to design and build an HL7 Library. This project has since gone dormant but I’ve still been thinking about this area. What is the best approach to processing HL7 3.0 XML messages at the time of receipt? Is there a need for an HL7 3.0 object model that deserializes from and serializes to XML? Of course, answers to these questions will be derived from establishing use case scenarios that reflect the business requirements for messaging and workflow. I will soon be brainstorming use case scenarios with others, including my colleague Simon Chester who is our Healthcare Industry Architect and who has a deep knowledge of solutions architecture and enterprise application integration for the healthcare industry.
Simon has posted his thoughts on an HL7 3.0 object model which reflects our recent conversations on this subject of an HL7 3.0 object model. Since then I’ve been in more discussions about how to process the receipt of HL7 3.0 messages and the need for object model deserialization. One interesting idea that came up was to use SQL Server 2005 to persist HL7 3 messages and then use SQL Server Notification Services to notify subscribers. I recently learned that SQL Server 2005 provides the capability to “register” schema collections and then create typed “xml” columns. These typed “xml” columns then provide XML instance validation during persistence and allow indexing on the elements within the XML document. The great thing about having indices on the XML elements for typed “xml” columns, is that it facilitates efficient query operations against a column’s XML document content. You no longer have to pick those elements you want represented as separate indexed columns. Other possible advantages to using SQL Server 2005 for HL7 3.0 XML message persistence include: logging and tracking of all message content without the need to implement separate logging and tracking functionality (may address some/all of Infoway’s requirements for HIAL-level log management services), using SQL Server Notification Services to publish HL7 3.0 message content to subscribers in a more purposed and “simplistic” form, the abstraction of HL7 3.0 message structures away from the core business logic and workflow.
 | HL7, HL7 3, XML, Healthcare, SQL Server |