Patient information exchange via web services in HL 7 v3 for two different healthcare systems

Abstract

Healthcare information systems (HIS) have been widely developed and deployed in several countries. In Thailand, there are two popular HIS systems: one is HCIS and the other is HOSxP. HCIS are currently the most deployed system since it is developed for use in all small health units in rural areas by the Ministry of Public Health of Thailand. HOSxP is another popular open source HIS used in mid-size hospitals. Both systems use different database systems, and their entity names are also different even for the same data. When patient data needs to be referred from one HIS to another, the problem is how to transfer such data in a correct, convenient and efficient way. This paper proposes a solution to transfer basic patient information from HCIS to HOSxP using the standard HL 7 version 3 message exchange, which is the new standard for exchanging healthcare information. We design and implement the patient information exchange system using Mirth Connect and the web service technology. Our system is demonstrated only for patient and visit information exchange from HCIS to HOSxP, and it works for both PC and mobile phones that can be connected to the Internet.