HL7 interaction without PI

[Former Member]

Hello everyone,

We need to estimate and define interaction with LIS and RIS systems by means of standard HL7 messages (ADT, ORU, ORM, etc) and TCP/IP protocol. SAP doesn't support this functionality in an easy way as far as I know. It will only drop a file and then per inbound communication you have to use BAPIs.

Is there any way to easily configure SAP to send and receive HL7 messages over TCP/IP? We will use the most common ones in version 2.X. I can't find an easy solution to this scenario. The system is 6.04 ECC.

Is it really necessary to have a middle ware to accomplish this functionality?

Any help will be appreciated (example files, diagrams, specifications, etc).

Regards.

Damián.

[bettina_lieske · Accepted solution]

Hi Damian,

since EhP4 there is a new way of supporting HL7 based on SOA, Enterprise Services and Netweaver PI. With EhP5 even more HL7 messages are covered.

Please have a look at the[ ES Wiki page |http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/ESpackages/Patient%20Administration ]of the Bundle Patient Administration and especially its [child page |http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/ESpackages/IHEConfigurationGuide ] (the updated version of this guide for EhP5 will be available very soon).

Hope this helps, best regards,

Bettina

[Former Member]

Hi Bettina,

Thanks for the fast reply.

I've been reading about ES packages but unfortunately they require PI and the HL7 adapter for it. The PI solution is sadly out of scope in this project.

Regards,

Damián.

[former_member208581]

Dear Damian,

for a full answer to your question we have to look into different aspects of it.

The ERP system does not provide support for communication by MLLP (TCP/IP Socket connections) for any messaging. This feature is usually implemented with a middelware system. As Bettina suggested SAP PI is one option, were few adapters are availble to connect by MLLP.

Do you have another middleware system in use? Can you utilize it this one?

Besides the communication layer, also the messaging layer is important to look into. See below a short summary of the system features and implementation alternatives.

a) ADT - patient demographics

There is support of HL7 as file available already. It's based on the HCM communication framework.

b) ORM - order entry

In fact there is not a strong support for order entry message available. In most of the projects a clinical order component menthod is used to trigger the message dispatch. As there quite a lot of considerations this is the most complex part of it.

c) ORU - order result

There is a file based interface available. Check the documentation here [http://help.sap.com/erp2005_ehp_04/helpdata/en/17/c391da004911d2a970006094b92f9e/content.htm]

Other messages can be implemented as well, but this is mostly custom development.

If you are interested you can contact, to see whether we can provide as vendor further support for your project and your requirements.

Axel Biernat

(axel.biernat at siemens.com)

Product Commercialize - Knowledge Transfer

Siemens AG

[Former Member]

Hi Axel,

My recommendation was to use PI + Adapter (even the freeware Mirthconnect), but the management here decided not to go with PI. Currently there is no middleware here.

By HCM communication framework you mean the transceiver app to be installed in the 3rd party provider? The same for the ORU messages?

The estrange part is that in the Messages help in SPRO (SAP Healthcare -> Communication -> Messages -> Messages Types Help, it states: "At present, the IS-H System can receive HL7 format messages."

With those 3 messages I think it will be enough for basic communication. ORM messages can't be triggered by events as the ADT ones?

The big problem also is how to receive the messages back, I mean the middleware does call a BAPI and if the 3rd party only uses MLLP then it is impossible to achieve communication without a middleware, right?

Thanks in advance,

Damián.

[former_member208581]

Hi Damian,

By HCM communication framework you mean the transceiver app to be installed in the 3rd party provider?

Right, I mean the HCM transceiver program. This does write the message to a file.

The same for the ORU messages?

Right, this messages are received from a file by the HCM transceiver program. Of course other implementation options with custom developments are possible. And in fact most of the customers are doing this with a custom development solution, partially using the ORU message import function.

The estrange part is that in the Messages help in SPRO (SAP Healthcare -> Communication -> Messages -> Messages Types Help, it states: "At present, the IS-H System can receive HL7 format messages." 

This is still correct, but only file is supported.

ORM messages can't be triggered by events as the ADT ones?

No, that is not supported. I assumed you plan to use the clinical order for order entry. The best way to do it is to use a order component method which is dispatching the message. As this is custom development, you can also used the HCM transceiver if you want. Should not be a big deal, if you are familiar with the underlying software design.

I really recommend you to bring a middleware system to your landscape. It's not important if it's a SAP PI or a 3rd party product such as Siemens OpenLink or MirthConnect, because without the life is a pain. Sure, you can find some interim solution, e.g. small program receiving hl7 messages and save as file and vice-a-versa, but it does not provide the important functions of transactional message handling, logging, tracing or even queuing. Also such a program and the complexity of a hospital's IT landscape will lead to a need for configuration - and this is a pretty small middleware system already.

Regards,

Axel Biernat

Product Commercialize - Knowledge Transfer

Siemens AG