Oracle Integration Cloud Healthcare - Process HL7 message Outbound

This is in continuation to my earlier blog on OIC Healthcare features. You can find out more about this feature and an overview of the new features in my earlier post.

In this blog I will demonstrate how to use Oracle Integration cloud to create a HL7 file to a SFTP folder location for an updated patient record. We will use the new Healthcare action to parse the incoming message and match it to one of the HL7 messages that has been defined in the Oracle Integration HL7 editor and write it into a SFTP server.

In OIC scheduler based integration, updated patient record is fetched from Oracle database (here I am using Oracle ADW) and transformed and translated HL7 message (using Healthcare action) is written to SFTP server folder location.

Login to Oracle Integration Console then Home > Design > Connections 

Create Autonomous Data Warehouse Connection

Create FTP Connection 

(Using the embedded SFTP-compliant repository in Oracle Integration for storing and retrieving files)

Navigate to Oracle Integration Home. You can see the new Healthcare Capability  

In the navigation pane, click Healthcare, then Schemas. On the Schemas page, click Create to create a new schema

You create a healthcare schema using a standard HL7 schema definition as a starting point. All HL7 base schemas from version 2.3.1 onwards are supported and provided with Oracle Integration. You can also customize the schema according to your needs.

Full editing capability allows :

• Start a new schema from any base definition/version
• Add/delete new segments and fields
• Define element types and cardinality
• Replicate base or customized segments and fields for reuse in multiple document definitions

Customize the schema according to your needs and Save

In the left navigation pane, click Documents. On the Documents page, click Create to create a new Document.

The document represents a specific snapshot of a schema to use in an integration. You later select the document for conversion into a supported format when you configure the healthcare action during design of your integration.

Once you have created your schema and document, you can design an integration with a healthcare action.

Navigate to Home > Design > Integrations and Create a Scheduled integration

Invoke action to fetch the updated patient records from Oracle database

A New Healthcare action in the developer palette for processing HL7 messages. The Healthcare action does all the heavy lifting and provides conversion of native HL7 messages in and out of OIC.

Drag and drop Healthcare action from Actions tab for translating fetched patient records to HL7 standard message

Select an operation to perform:

• Convert message reference to document: Use this operation to identify the incoming message type and version. This operation returns a reference to a translated message and metadata needed to route the integration to an appropriate child integration to process the message. When you call the operation, you need to specify a list of HL7 documents with which you want to match.
• Match and translate inbound message: Use this operation to convert inbound HL7-formatted messages into XML format. Specify the documents you want this action to receive. These are the documents that you configured during design time. This operation takes a raw HL7 message off the wire, parses it, and matches it with the document definition you select in the Choose documents section. The message is then converted to an Oracle Integration XML payload.
• Translate to outbound message: Use this operation to convert an XML payload message to an outbound HL7 message.

We will first translate the inbound XML message to HL7 format

From the dropdown, select the document that you created earlier

Map the fetched patient update record to Translate HL7 request message

Invoke action to write a translated HL7 message file to SFTP server folder location

Map translated HL7 message to File Reference field. Use decodeBase64ToReference function while mapping

Validate and return to Integration canvas.

Select the Business Identifier for tracking, Save, Exit and activate the Integration. 

Testing and Validation

Update patient record in the database table

Hover on to the integration and click on Run button. Then again, Run button

From the Activity Stream we can see record has been pickup by OIC and successfully created a HL7 file in FTP location. 

Verify the Patient record HL7 file created in the SFTP server folder location.

This completes the blog on HL7 outbound processing using OIC. 

Oracle Integration Cloud Healthcare - Process HL7 Inbound

With the release 23.10 of Oracle Integration, Oracle released new features to address integration use cases in the healthcare industry. 

The healthcare integration industry (known as healthcare interoperability) uses several different message standards and protocols that are not used in other industry’s enterprise integration uses cases.

The most common message standards used for healthcare interoperability include:

• HL7 – a delimited flat file format used for sharing clinical data between systems within and across healthcare providers.
• FHIR – A more modern ‘API’ based message format for clinical data exchange. Used XML or JSON over the REST protocol. 
• CDA – and XML based message format for the sharing of whole documents between health systems. E.g. A discharge summary or an imaging report.
• DICOM – the international standard for medical images and related information. XML based.
• X12 HIPPA – a set of healthcare insurance specific B2B transaction definitions in the X12 format used for interoperability between payers and providers

New OIC Healthcare features include capabilities specific to the healthcare industry :

• HL7 and FHIR design time and run time support (FHIR via the REST adapter for now – specialized FHIR adapter coming later)
• A brand new “Healthcare Action” in the developer palette to process healthcare industry message types
• New adapters to support transport protocols used in the healthcare industry
• A message editor to define and customize healthcare messages
• New components in OIC’s runtime engine to parse and process these messages formats in integration flows

In this blog I will demonstrate how to use OIC to read a HL7 file with patient record from SFTP and use the new Healthcare action to parse the incoming message and match it to one of the HL7 messages that has been defined in the Oracle Integration HL7 editor and sync it into a data layer(We are using Oracle ADW).

Login to Oracle Integration Console then Home > Design > Connections 

Create Autonomous Data Warehouse Connection

Create FTP Connection 

(Using the embedded SFTP-compliant repository in Oracle Integration for storing and retrieving files)

Navigate to Oracle Integration Home. You can see the new Healthcare Capability  

In the navigation pane, click Healthcare, then Schemas. On the Schemas page, click Create to create a new schema

You create a healthcare schema using a standard HL7 schema definition as a starting point. All HL7 base schemas from version 2.3.1 onwards are supported and provided with Oracle Integration. You can also customize the schema according to your needs.

Full editing capability allows :

• Start a new schema from any base definition/version
• Add/delete new segments and fields
• Define element types and cardinality
• Replicate base or customized segments and fields for reuse in multiple document definitions

Customize the schema according to your needs and Save

In the left navigation pane, click Documents. On the Documents page, click Create to create a new Document.

The document represents a specific snapshot of a schema to use in an integration. You later select the document for conversion into a supported format when you configure the healthcare action during design of your integration.

Once you have created your schema and document, you can design an integration with a healthcare action.

Navigate to Home > Design > Integrations and Create a Scheduled integration

Click on + sign after Schedule and choose the FTP Connection 

A New Healthcare action in the developer palette for processing HL7 messages. The Healthcare action does all the heavy lifting and provides conversion of native HL7 messages in and out of OIC.

Click on + sign after File Read and choose the Healthcare activity 

Select an operation to perform:

• Convert message reference to document: Use this operation to identify the incoming message type and version. This operation returns a reference to a translated message and metadata needed to route the integration to an appropriate child integration to process the message. When you call the operation, you need to specify a list of HL7 documents with which you want to match.
• Match and translate inbound message: Use this operation to convert inbound HL7-formatted messages into XML format. Specify the documents you want this action to receive. These are the documents that you configured during design time. This operation takes a raw HL7 message off the wire, parses it, and matches it with the document definition you select in the Choose documents section. The message is then converted to an Oracle Integration XML payload.
• Translate to outbound message: Use this operation to convert an XML payload message to an outbound HL7 message.

We will first translate the inbound HL7 message to XML format

Map the File Read output to Translate Input

Validate and return to Integration canvas. Click on + sign after TranslateHL7Message and choose the Healthcare activity 

Now we will convert message reference to document

Map the TranslateHL7Message Output to CovertHL7Message

Validate and return to Integration canvas.

I have created a table in the ADW to store the Patient Information 

Click on + sign after CovertHL7Message and choose the ADW Connection

Import the PatientInformation Table

Assign Input to ADW. Complete the mapping. 

Validate and return to Integration canvas.

Select the Business Identifier for tracking, Save, Exit and activate the Integration. 

Testing and Validation

Place HL7 Patient file in Input Directory on the FTP server.

Hover on to the integration and click on Run button. Then again, Run button

From the Activity Stream we can see HL7 file has been pickup by OIC and successfully processed to ADW. 

Verify the Patient record in the database

This completes the blog on HL7 file Inbound processing using OIC. You can refer to my blog for the outbound scenario and generate a HL7 file.