IOPInteroperability
Getting systems that never met to talk
Interoperability is the continuous exchange of data between systems that were never designed together, each in its own format. An admission entered once reaches the laboratory, radiology and finance, with nothing re-keyed.
CHNThree channels
What it looks like in practice
Live admissions3 destinations in parallel
ADTADT^A01 · HL7 v2
Integration engineOIE · one engine, many channels
Blood bankHTTPSPatient · FHIR R4
RadiologyMLLPADT^A01 · HL7 v2
FinanceSFTPcare episode · XML
Lab results2 destinations in sequence
LaboratoryORU^R01 · HL7 v2
Integration engineOIE · one engine, many channels
DCIMLLPORU^R01 · HL7 v2
DMEHTTPSORU^R01 · HL7 v2
Pharmacy orders
Pharmacyorders · Oracle
Integration engineOIE · one engine, many channels
DCIRDE^O11 · HL7 v2
Integration engineOIE · one engine, many channels
Gathered data
Integration engineOIE · one engine, many channels
Data warehouseADT · lab · pharmacy
One engine, three channels, three systems that never met. The first shows why engines exist: one admission goes out to three systems at once, each in the format it understands. The second orchestrates: it waits for the DCI's acknowledgement before sending to the clinics, as MLLP requires. Under the engine, a warehouse gathers the data from all three flows: the engine writes to it and reads it back when needed. Filtering and transformation happen once at the source, then per destination where needed.