3 ms·

Funny this crops up. I've had to quickly get to grips with a somewhat related subject: a human readable healthcare interchange format called HL7 v2 (v3 has, som

by jwdunne 11y ago

Funny this crops up. I've had to quickly get to grips with a somewhat related subject: a human readable healthcare interchange format called HL7 v2 (v3 has, somewhat rightfully, replaced the custom format with XML). Here's an example: MSH|^~\&|MegaReg|XYZHospC|SuperOE|XYZImgCtr|20060529090131-0500||ADT^A01^ADT_A01|01052901|P|2.5 EVN||200605290901||||200605290900 PID|||56782445^^^UAReg^PI||KLEINSAMPLE^BARRY^Q^JR||19620910|M||2028-9^^HL70005^RA99113^^XYZ|260 GOODWIN CREST DRIVE^^BIRMINGHAM^AL^35209^^M~NICKELL’S PICKLES^10000 W 100TH AVE^BIRMINGHAM^AL^35200^^O|||||||0105I30001^^^99DEF^AN PV1||I|W^389^1^UABH^^^^3||||12345^MORGAN^REX^J^^^MD^0010^UAMC^L||67890^GRAINGER^LUCY^X^^^MD^0010^UAMC^L|MED|||||A0||13579^ POTTER^SHERMAN^T^^^MD^0010^UAMC^L|||||||||||||||||||||||||||200605290900 OBX|1|NM|^Body Height||1.80|m^Meter^ISO+|||||F OBX|2|NM|^Body Weight||79|kg^Kilogram^ISO+|||||F AL1|1||^ASPIRIN DG1|1||786.50^CHEST PAIN, UNSPECIFIED^I9|||A

chris_wot 11y ago
Please tell me that's not real data.
- jwdunne 11y ago
  No, I pulled it from Wikipedia. I wouldn't ever share real data, especially since it's the transmission of STI testing results. Very telling about it's effectiveness though: you didn't spot "nickell's pickles" in there!
  - chris_wot 11y ago
    Oh, but I did :-) But given it's MUMPS, that could have been part of the file format...
daigoba66 11y ago
Who said that it is suppose to be human readable? HL7 v2 is actually fairly nice as a data structure. It's really easy to parse, compresses nicely, and is quite flexible in terms of schema. I'll grant you that the standard message schemas are terrible, but the data structure is elegant for what it needs to do.
- jwdunne 11y ago
  That's what the bits and pieces of docs I read said it was. I'm fairly new to it as a format and "human readable" made me double take.
- FLUX-YOU 11y ago
  >It's really easy to parse, compresses nicely, and is quite flexible in terms of schema It fine in modern languages with good string parsing tools but if you have a v2 parser using simpler techniques in something that's difficult to debug with, it can be a nightmare when something goes slightly wrong. I'm not a fan of how we did it, but it has worked for 95% of cases and was coded in 1999, so I can't really complain all that much. Part of the struggle is massaging message parses where a vendor is doing something slightly differently (or very terribly, like adding the lab's director on every fucking OBX segment as if the director will get fired mid-HL7 message and we gotta know about it).
FLUX-YOU 11y ago
>HL7 v2 Run, dude
ch4s3 11y ago
I've never seen a single place that uses v3 in the wild. Seems like everyone is using v2 still and talking about moving to FIHR.

by jwdunne 11y ago

chris_wot 11y ago

Please tell me that's not real data.

jwdunne 11y ago
No, I pulled it from Wikipedia. I wouldn't ever share real data, especially since it's the transmission of STI testing results. Very telling about it's effectiveness though: you didn't spot "nickell's pickles" in there!
- chris_wot 11y ago
  Oh, but I did :-) But given it's MUMPS, that could have been part of the file format...

daigoba66 11y ago

Who said that it is suppose to be human readable? HL7 v2 is actually fairly nice as a data structure. It's really easy to parse, compresses nicely, and is quite flexible in terms of schema. I'll grant you that the standard message schemas are terrible, but the data structure is elegant for what it needs to do.

jwdunne 11y ago
That's what the bits and pieces of docs I read said it was. I'm fairly new to it as a format and "human readable" made me double take.
FLUX-YOU 11y ago
>It's really easy to parse, compresses nicely, and is quite flexible in terms of schema It fine in modern languages with good string parsing tools but if you have a v2 parser using simpler techniques in something that's difficult to debug with, it can be a nightmare when something goes slightly wrong. I'm not a fan of how we did it, but it has worked for 95% of cases and was coded in 1999, so I can't really complain all that much. Part of the struggle is massaging message parses where a vendor is doing something slightly differently (or very terribly, like adding the lab's director on every fucking OBX segment as if the director will get fired mid-HL7 message and we gotta know about it).

FLUX-YOU 11y ago

>HL7 v2 Run, dude

ch4s3 11y ago

I've never seen a single place that uses v3 in the wild. Seems like everyone is using v2 still and talking about moving to FIHR.