Want to get data In & Out of EHR?

Ever had or have a need to be able to use the ever valuable and important data from your EMR/EHR?

There are number of reasons where you would need to need to write data or read data from your EMR/EHR system like

1. Connecting an Appointment portal or an App to EMR/EHR from creating and reading appointments?

2. Need to be able to send Order requests & receive results from Lab/Imaging system?

3. Need to export data for analytics or reporting?

How can you achieve this?

There are different messaging standards been used in the industry for exchanging between care systems & devices

• HL7

• CDA

• API

• X12

• FHIR

• DICOM

Other than these messaging standards, if you have access to EHR database then I find that as one of the cost effective way to get data in & out of EHR.

What do I need to do to get this done?

Most of the EHR companies support most of the messaging standards.

HL7, CDA & X12 been the most widely used standards for exchanging clinical & claims data and is supported by all ONC certified EHR. If you are interested in using these messaging standards then reach out to the EHR vendor and they will walk you through the process.

Note: If you are hosting the database then third party vendors can also help you build the interface.

DICOM is widely adopted for Radiology and surgical devices but not supported by some EHR vendors. Reach out to the EHR vendor if they support DICOM, if they do not then engage a middleman who can act as a bridge.

API & FHIR: Upcoming trend in the interoperability space, partially supported by most of the big EHR vendors. EHR vendor will share client credentials which can be used by the external application to read and write data.

Database: There are vendors in the market which can connect to the database and export data as per your need. This is an option, if the database is hosted and maintained locally.

Note: If you have access to your database then a third party vendor will be able to build an interface with any of the messaging standard.

How do I decide which messaging standard to use?

Well, there is not one size fit all answer. There are various factors which have to be considered before making this decision. I would evaluate questions like

1. What is the business case to build the interface?

• To be able to send patient summary then CDA is what we would be using .

• To send a order request HL7, FHIR can be used.

• To be able to send a claim request X12(837) would have to be used.

2. How many transactions will be exchanged in a specified duration?

3. Capability of the EHR vendor.

4. Time sensitivity of data availability

5. Implementation & maintenance cost

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Contact us, if you you are looking for consulting or a third party vendor to build a solution.