HL7-XML process project

R. Wang

Mar 04, 05

Introduction: This project automates the process from receiving HL7 message
to loading to Promis tables by bridging XML. This project involved several parts:
receiving HL7 message, processing HL7 message, converting to XML, Loading to
database by using SQL*Loader, querying XML table and inserting to Promis table.
The figure 1 depicts the basic flow of this project.

HL7 Message

Save to Fi l e Pro_HL7_batch. pl
HL7ADTLi st ener. pl HL7_ADT. hl 7 H
L7_ADT_P.hl 7

Back to next incom

i ng H
L7 m
essage(s) Barxm
l XM
L converter

I nsert_XML_TABLE SQL*Loader
XML_TABLE XM
L_ LOAD_TABLE H
L7_ADT_P.xm
l

I nserXML_ADT

Prom
i s tabl e

Figure 1. Flowchart of HL7XML project

Receiving HL7 message

There is a perl program “HL7ADTListener.pl” to receive the HL7 message. As this

program running, a specific port is open to be available to receive message from
sender. As soon as one/more messages are received, a batch file is called to go
through the HL7 processing till this message be inserted into the Promis table.
The HL7 message received originally is stored in HL7 file “HL7_ADT.hl7” for
further process.

Validating HL7 message

Basically, the original HL7 message contains unwanted space or string which
should be eliminated before converting to XML because the XML converter will
not accept the HL7 message with idle parts. Another perl program
“Pro_HL7_batch.pl” will perform this work. This perl file read the message from
“HL7_ADT.hl7” into an array line by line and only keep the qualified message
body in a new HL7 file with name “HL7_ADT_P.hl7”.

Converting HL7 to XML

As for the conversion from HL7 to XML, we use the tool “barxml” to do it.
Currently, “barxml” offers two HL7 version conversion: V2.3 and V2.4.
Technically, this converter will automatically identify the version of HL7 file.
“Barxml” also provides helpful error message to help us know why the error
happened if we experienced it. A new xml file “HL7_ADT_P.xml” will be created if
this conversion is successful.

Loading to XML table by using SQL*Loader

The new XML file means that the HL7 message is parsed to structured data with
XML format. That makes it possible to insert to oracle table with datatype
XMLType. Oralce offers robust support on this datatype and make us can query
XMLType with standard SQL statement which save us lots of works to parse the
unstructured HL7 data. By using SQL*Loader, this xml is insert into table
“XML_LOAD_TABLE” as a CLOB column. Before we do that, two new tables
“XML_LOAD_TABLE” (CLOB) and “XML_TABLE” (XMLType) should be created.

* table: xml_load_table (CLOB)

create table xml_load_table (xmlcolumn CLOB);
* table: xml_table (XMLType)
create table xml_table (xmldoc sys.xmltype);

Converting CLOB to XMLType

CLOB is a kind of normal large object in Oracle, but is lack on XML support. That
means we can’t query CLOB with SQL statement. Fortunately, CLOB can be
converted to XMLType by using the XMLType function “CreateXML”. As we convert
CLOB to XMLType, we can easily query XMLType to get the necessary HL7
segment message. The procedure “insert_xml_table” is called to perform the
converting.

Querying XML table and Inserting to Promis table

Even though we already had the structured message on XMLType, we still need
more control to process the string queried from table XML_TABLE. Currentlly, the
cursor is used to process the message segment one by one and then insert into
Promis table.

Back to next incoming HL7 message(s)

As soon as the data has been inserted into Promis table, the program will return
to receive next incoming HL7 message(s) and then perform the same process
described above.

Program files list:

1. HL7ADTListener.pl --- Perl file to receive the HL7 data from sender and call
batch file to process the rest of jobs
2. HL7_batch.bat --- OS batch file to integrate the processing files, including
validating HL7 format, converting to XML, loading
xml to database, inserting into Promis table
3. Pro_HL7_batch.pl --- Perl file to validate the HL7 message (eliminating idle
parts)
4. Barxml --- Java tool to convert HL7 to XML
5. VIHATest.ctl --- SQL*Loader control file to identify the loading method
6. insert_xml_table.sql --- SQL script to create the procedure
insert_xml_table, which create the data in XMLType and then insert into table
xml_table
7. insertXml_ADT.sql --- SQL scripe to query the data from XMLType in table
xml_table and then insert into Promis table, used in test, VIHA_Patients

Appendix

Two ways to save xml data in oracle database:

1. LOB data
This xml data saving way in Oracle offers flexibility when the XML data model
changed. In our application, that means the possible change in HL7, further
converted to XML, will not affect the data loading and saving method we are
currently using. Another important point is that saving data in LOB will keep the
complete data oringinally converted from HL7. That make us keep the data
consistent with the one we received. The disadvantage of this method is that
saving data in LOB require more phisical disk space.

2. Structrued (relation-object) data

Comparing to LOB data, structured data is not flexible as LOB data because the
data in XML file will be parsed and further inserted into specific xml table. The
changes on HL7 data model will make data schema redefined. Saving data in
structured xml will lose some information in XML. If we want the completness of
data, this method is not our choice. The advange of this method is that the
performance on DML is excellent and it requires less physical disk space than
LOB data.

Summary

Currently, Promis is experiencing challenge of HL7 loading. We are working to

find a effective solution to make the HL7 loading easily. We are trying to parse
the HL7 data by bridging XML to skip the fussy work previously handled by
PL/SQL. We simplify the process and keep the complete HL7 data in XML table
and we make it possible to get the data from this source to Promis table. At this
time, we want to keep the Promis database structure unchagned. Less loading
time of LOB data than structured data is also very helpful for us to load the high
volumn of HL7 data into Promis. Therefore, the saving method of LOB data works
to us to achieve our objective.

Note: visit the following link to get scripts mentioned in this article.
http://www.oraclepoint.com/topic.php?filename=98&extra=page%3D1