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HIS INTEGRATION

HIS INTEGRATION

Owned by Pedro Jose Sanchez Luling
Last updated: May 24, 2023
3 min read

The Linkcare platform supports integration with external Hospital Information Systems (HIS).

The purpose of the interaction between Linkcare and an external system is to sync personal and/or clinical data about a user.

The integration between the Linkcare platform and an external system requires a specific implementation for that external system and takes into consideration the following topics:

  • Which personal information about patients/professionals can be stored locally in the Linkcare platform and which information must always be retrieved dynamically from the external system. The goal is to fulfill the privacy policies regarding the applicable data protection laws.

  • Provision of mechanisms to send clinical information about the patients from the Linkcare platform to the external system. The contents an extent of the information must be tailored for each external system.

  • Provision of mechanisms to receive requests from the external system

The interactions between the Linkcare platform and an external HIS can happen it 2 directions:

  • From Linkcare to the external system

  • From the external system to Linkcare: Happens when the external system initiates the communication to request information from the Linkcare platform. This interaction is allowed only to authorized systems that have an Interoperability Key provided by Linkcare.

Interactions between Linkcare and a external HIS

To improve performance, the Linkcare platform always tries to work with its internal DB and tries to minimize the interactions with an external HIS.

This approach requires to store some information about the patient retrieved from an external HIS in the local DB, but it is always tried to store only the minimum necessary information.

 

Reason for the interaction

Direction

API funcions involved

Description

Reason for the interaction

Direction

API funcions involved

Description

Search a patient in the external HIS database

Linkcare to HIS

case_search ()

Allows to search for a patient in the external HIS.

Creation of a new ADMISSION in Linkcare platform

Linkcare to HIS

admission_create ()

Creates a new ADMISSION for a patient that doesn’t exist locally in the Linkcare DB.

Show information about a patient

Linkcare to HIS

case_get ()

case_get_contact ()

When personal information about a patient is requested, The Linkcare API will show the information collected locally plus the information retrieved from the external HIS.

Update information about a patient

Linkcare to HIS

HIS to Linkcare

case_get ()

case_get_contact ()

The update of the information about a patient can happen in 2 directions:

  • Linkcare requests for updated information: this normally would happen when the date of last update of a patient has exceeded some threshold, but depends on the implementation of the interaction with each HIS. This action can be triggered when:

    • When case_get () or case_get_contact () is invoked if the HIS connector is configured to do so.

    • By a daemon that checks periodically whether the information of a patient must be updated (not implemented)

  • The external HIS sends a request to Linkcare to update the information about a patient. This approach leaves the decision about when the information must be updated to the external HIS.

Search a professional in the external HIS database

Linkcare to HIS

 

Allows to search for a professional in the external HIS.

 

 

 

 

Show information about a professional

Linkcare to HIS

user_get ()

user_get_contact ()

When personal information about a patient is requested, The Linkcare API will show the information collected locally plus the information retrieved from the external HIS.

Update information about a professional

Linkcare to HIS

HIS to Linkcare

user_get ()

user_get_contact ()

The update of the information about a professional can happen in 2 directions:

  • Linkcare requests for updated information: this normally would happen when the date of last update of a professional has exceeded some threshold, but depends on the implementation of the interaction with each HIS. This action can be triggered when:

    • When user_get () or user_get_contact () invoked if the HIS connector is configured to do so.

    • By a daemon that checks periodically whether the information of a professional must be updated (not implemented)

  • The external HIS sends a request to Linkcare to update the information about a professional. This approach leaves the decision about when the information must be updated to the external HIS.

Send Reports or any other information collected for a patient in an ADMISSION

Middleware to HIS and Linkcare

 

Either the moment for sending the information and the type of information that must be sent depend greatly on the design of the PROGRAM (care plan).

For this reason, this interaction is normally implemented as a middleware specifically designed for a PROGRAM that acts as an intermediate actor between the Linkcare platform and the HIS.

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