Title: A HL7 transformer application for vaccination data report

Authors: I-Chun Lin, Hui-Mei Hsu, Chien-Tsai Liu

Addresses: Department of Information Management, National Chung Cheng University, 168 University Road, Min-Hsiung Chia-Yi, Taiwan. ' Department of Healthcare Administration, Mei Ho Institute of Technology, 23 Ping Kuang Road, Neipu, Pingtung, Taiwan. ' Graduate Institute of Medical Informatics, Taipei Medical University (TMU), 250 Wu-Xing Street, Taipei, Taiwan

Abstract: In this paper, we design a data transformer to transform Comma Separated Value (CSV) format into Health Level Seven (HL7) messages without losing syntax and semantics. The algorithm of the data transformer is similar to a generic parser for solving scheme-level mapping problems. It can be extended to transform non-uniform formats for exchanges among different hospital information systems. To show the flexibility and scalability of the algorithm, we use it for the transformation of reported data in the Vaccination Reporting System (VRS). Through the data transformer, different formats of vaccination data can be reported directly to the Taiwan|s Center for Disease Control.

Keywords: Health Level Seven messaging; HL7 standards; medical information standards; medical information exchange; data transformation; inter-media representation; generic transformation algorithms; GTA; vaccination reporting; binary tree; middleware; electronic vaccination reporting systems; heterogeneous system communication; Taiwan; electronic healthcare; e-healthcare.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEH.2006.008827

International Journal of Electronic Healthcare, 2006 Vol.2 No.2, pp.117 - 131

Published online: 27 Jan 2006 *

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