The Linkcare platform supports integration with external Hospital Information Systems (HIS) to enable synchronization of personal and/or clinical data associated with users.

Integration with an external HIS requires a tailored implementation specific to each external system. This implementation must address the following key aspects:

Data Storage and Privacy Compliance: Define which personal information (related to patients and professionals) may be stored locally within the Linkcare platform, and which data must always be retrieved dynamically from the external HIS. These decisions must align with applicable data protection regulations and privacy policies.
Outbound Data Exchange: Provide mechanisms for transmitting clinical data from the Linkcare platform to the external HIS. The structure and scope of the transmitted data must be customized for each specific integration.
Inbound Request Handling: Implement support for receiving and processing incoming requests initiated by the external HIS.

The interaction between the Linkcare platform and an external HIS can be bidirectional:

Linkcare → External HIS: Linkcare initiates communication to retrieve or send data.
External HIS → Linkcare: The external HIS initiates communication to request data or trigger actions within the Linkcare platform. This type of interaction is restricted to authorized systems that possess a valid INTEROPERABILITY KEYS issued 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 the external HIS.

This approach entails persisting a subset of patient data retrieved from an external HIS into the local database, with a consistent emphasis on storing only the minimally required 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 → HIS	case_search ()	Allows to search for a patient in the external HIS.
Creation of a new ADMISSION in Linkcare platform	Linkcare → 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 → 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 → HIS HIS → 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 → HIS		Allows to search for a professional in the external HIS.
Show information about a professional	Linkcare → 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 → HIS HIS → 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.

Linkcare Server WS API

HIS INTEGRATION

Interactions between Linkcare and a external HIS

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