HLN attended HL7’s 36th Connectathon held in Dallas, TX, May 18-19, 2024. We actively participate in two Helios FHIR Accelerators: Bulk Data and Query and Response; only Query Response was featured in this Connectathon. Our focus in the Query and Response track was a similar use case as modeled in the January event where we partnered with the Minnesota Department of Health. The scenario we explored was predicated on a public health agency receiving an Electronic Lab Report (ELR) for a positive Chlamydia test. Patient information available from the ELR (e.g. name, and date of birth) was used in a “fan-out” query to a Health Information Exchange (HIE) to locate the patient’s more complete health record. Once found/identified, direct queries to the “HCO’s eHR” (a FHIR sandbox populated with synthetic patient data) were made to retrieve data that would constitute the majority of data found in an electronic Case Report (eCR). Additionally, we were able to query the sandbox for a condition-specific clinical report, which included only the relevant diagnoses, labs, and medications for the chlamydia case.
Having tested the ability to query for specific sections of an eCR, we hope to be able to query for a complete eCR in the next Connectathon, with hopes of consuming it into a FHIR-enabled Disease Surveillance System (DSS) and/or a Case Management System (CMS). We are currently partnering with the Minnesota Department of Health in these efforts, but are open to additional partners as well. If you are a public health agency and interested in partnering with us please contact us at info@hln.com.
Connecting with colleagues, both old and new, is one of the great benefits of attending such events. Kristi Eckerson (HLN) is joined by former co-worker Karrie Schwencer of CDC/OPHDST, and current colleague Sujata Mallik from Altarum.
