Questions to ask about healthcare interoperability

What information must move?

Define the information to exchange, its source and destination, and the people who depend on it. An integration for laboratory results is a different project from transferring patient identity information or financial records. Describe whether the exchange is one-way or two-way and what should happen when information changes.

Which standard and version are involved?

HL7 FHIR is a standard for electronic healthcare information exchange. Its resources, versions and implementation details still need to be agreed by the parties connecting systems. A reference to FHIR in a brochure does not demonstrate that two particular systems can exchange the data your facility requires.

What implementation evidence is available?

Ask for interface documentation, supported operations, applicable profiles and a capability statement where relevant. Confirm patient matching, access permissions, terminology mappings, error handling and monitoring. Record who maintains the connection when either system changes.

How will the connection be accepted?

Prepare synthetic examples for successful exchanges, missing fields, duplicate records and service interruptions. Agree expected results and retain the test outcomes. Treat any untested connector as an item requiring evaluation rather than a completed deployment.

Source

The HL7 FHIR overview explains the standard and its resource-based approach. Consult the documentation for the release used by your project; a newer release does not establish compatibility with an older implementation.

HL7: FHIR overview