Beyond Medical Informatics

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The tools I use for HL7

with 4 comments

My team and I are now working on HL7 capabilities for The Medical City (TMC). Let me just share the tools I use for HL7 integration work. I’m sure other people will find the list useful.

Most of my work involves HL7 v2.x.

Integration Engine

  • Mirth Connect – I primarily use Mirth Connect for integration testing and implementations.

Basic Editing Tools

  • Notepad++ – For direct editing of HL7 text files.

XML Editing Tools

XML is an important part of using Mirth Connect. Both editors are free.

HL7 Editors

  • HL7 Tool – A rather rudimentary HL7 tool for editing HL7 text but it works!
  • HL7 Inspector – Allows viewing of HL7 v2.x messages in tree structure.
  • QuickViewHL7 – Another HL7 v2.x tree viewer with added features.

It also goes without saying that the team should have the right reference materials (HL7 documentation and Application Connection Sheets) during implementation.

I’d be happy to hear about the tools you use.

Related posts:

  1. 3 Common Misconceptions about HL7
  2. The Right Stuff

Written by Dr. Mike Muin

January 26th, 2011 at 2:07 pm

Posted in Work

Tagged with , , , ,

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4 Responses to 'The tools I use for HL7'

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  1. Hi sir,

    I’ve recently gained personal interest in healthcare informatics. What do you think of open source solutions, perhaps like Open eHealth Integration Platform which I found is also HL7-centric?

    Regards,
    Elmer Andes

    Elmer Andes

    15 Apr 11 at 9:44 pm

  2. I like open-source solutions!

    Mirth is open source but I haven’t had any experience with Open eHealth Integration Platform. Thanks for bringing that up! I will look into it.

    Thanks, Elmer!

    Dr. Mike Muin

    19 Apr 11 at 10:53 am

  3. Hi Mike,

    Opensource tends to be unreliable and unsupported unless your prepared to pay really big money, what do you think of commercial xml editors like oxygen and liquid xml editor ( http://www.liquid-technologies.com/xml-editor.aspx )

    manny

    20 Jul 11 at 8:29 pm

  4. Hi Manny! I have not yet tried commercial XML editors. The free and open source ones work for me right now.

    One important feature I use is XSD validation. Exchanger has that. I also heard Eclipse also has it. Aside from the format and XSD validation, I have no use yet of advanced features.

    When I do need more advanced featues, I’ll look into the editors you mentioned.

    Thanks!

    Dr. Mike Muin

    26 Jul 11 at 6:47 pm

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