Introduction

Using this plugin, OpenSpecimen can be integrated with pathology systems like CoPath or Cerner via HL7. The plugin loads the text Surgical Path Reports (SPRs) and links with the visit object in OpenSpecimen based on the accession number. 

Prerequisite

Data for the "Surgical Pathology Number" field on the Visit page should be entered by the biobank staff. This value is used by the plugin to link the SPR to the right visit.

Working

1. The plugin receives the HL7 messages on a pre-determined port. 19090 by default.
2. The messages supported are ORU R01 and R03.
3. The messages are processed in real-time. The SPR report is uploaded if a matching visit is found based on the accessing number in the message.
4. If a matching visit is not found, it is stored in the database as "PENDING". A retry is performed for X number of days to find a matching visit where X is configurable.
5. A summary email of the failed messages is sent every night to the administrators.

FAQs

How is addendum to SPRs handled?

When the SPR is edited, it gets overwritten with the new SPR. The assumption is that the new message contains the complete SPR.

How are errors handled?

An email is sent every night in case any message failed loading. All error messages are reprocessed for X number of days (where X is configured by the super admin). 

Audit

Every message received and processed is maintained in an audit table in the database. This includes statistics for how many messages received, processed, error, etc.