Understanding version 3

The Version 3 development by HL7 represents a major worldwide landmark in the developments of standards for electronic information flows in healthcare. It has already received substantial endorsement in a number of countries and also now forms the basis for an ISO international standard on healthcare message development. The V3 documentation is substantial and not easy to get familiar with. HL7 UK decided to sponsor the development of this Primer to help its membership get started on V3. Great care was taken in writing and revising the material to ensure that anyone using the Primer should be able to rapidly get to grips with the key elements of the V3 methodology. Since its original publication in 2003, the Primer has sold more than 2500 copies and has been translated into French and Japanese. During this time the Version 3 standard has changed significantly. This Primer has been completely revised and updated to reflect this and to align with the Normative Edition of the standard. It is essential reading not only for newcomers to HL7, but for purchasers of previous editions of the Primer. Through this Primer, we hope that many more thousands of people throughout the world will be in a position to understand the implications of HL7 Version 3 and how it can help with development of healthcare communications in their organisation. 1 Introduction 1.1 What this primer is about 1.2 Who it‘s aimed at 1.3 What it doesn‘t cover 1.4 How to use this Primer 1.5 Changes from previous versions 1.6 Spelling and language 2 Background 2.1 HL7 - the organization 2.2 Scope of HL7 2.3 The success of HL7 V2 2.4 The need for HL7 V3 2.5 The advantages of HL7 V3 2.6 Converting from V2 to V3 3 The Key Concepts of the V3 methodology 4 Storyboards 5 Application Roles and Trigger Events 5.1 Application Roles 5.2 Trigger events 6 Making HL7 V3 messages – the V3 modelling approach 6.1 The Reference Information Model 6.2 Model Representations in D-MIMs and R-MIMs 6.3 Constraints and refinement 7 R-MIMs and D-MIMs 7.1 The D-MIM 7.2 The R-MIM 7.3 Differences between D-MIMs and R-MIMs 7.4 Refined Message Information Model Example 7.5 Classes in the R-MIM Example 8 More R-MIM and D-MIM detail 8.1 Entry point 8.2 Cloned Classes 8.3 Choices 8.4 Identifying artifacts 9 Attributes 9.1 Attribute conventions 9.2 Structural Attributes 9.3 Frequently used attributes 10 Vocabularies 10.1 Overview 10.2 External coding systems 10.3 HL7 vocabulary tables 10.4 Extensibility 11 CMETs – Common Message Element Types 12 Data Types 12.1 Coded Data types 12.2 Other basic data types 12.3 Numbers and measurement 12.4 Names and addresses 12.5 Times 12.6 Generic collections 13 Hierarchical Message Descriptions (HMDs) 13.1 What is an HMD? 13.2 HMD grid 14 The Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) 15 Implementation Technology Specification (ITS) 15.1 XML ITS 16 Constraints 16.1 Constraining the choice of RIM classes 16.2 Constraining choice of RIM class attributes 16.3 Constraining occurrences of attributes 16.4 Constraining attribute value sets 16.5 Constraining data types 16.6 Constraining CMETs 16.7 Additional constraints 17 Clinical statement pattern 18 Localization 19 Message Transmission 19.1 HL7 Transmission Wrapper 19.2 HL7 Transmission Content 20 Tooling 20.1 Current toolset 20.2 HL7 R-MIM Designer 20.3 RoseTree 20.4 Publishing tools 21 HL7 V3 Standard – Normative Edition 21.1 Foundation 21.2 Domain Ballot Documents 21.3 Domain Content 22 References and Further Reading 23 Glossary