Tuncay Namli

An Interoperability Test Framework for HL7-Based Systems

Health Level Seven (HL7) is a prominent messaging standard in the eHealth domain, and with HL7 v2, it addresses only the messaging layer. However, HL7 implementations also deal with the other layers of interoperability, namely the business process layer and the communication layer. This need is addressed in HL7 v3 by providing a number of normative transport specification profiles. Furthermore, there are storyboards describing HL7 v3 message choreographies between specific roles in specific events. Having alternative transport protocols and descriptive message choreographies introduces great flexibility in implementing HL7 standards, yet, this brings in the need for test frameworks that can accommodate different protocols and permit the dynamic definition of test scenarios. In this paper, we describe a complete test execution framework for HL7-based systems that provides high-level constructs allowing dynamic set up of test scenarios involving all the layers in the interoperability stack. The computer-interpretable test description language developed offers a configurable system with pluggable adaptors. The Web-based GUIs make it possible to test systems over the Web anytime, anywhere, and with any party willing to do so.

Testing Conformance and Interoperability of eHealth Applications

OBJECTIVE To explain the common conformance and interoperability testing requirements of eHealth applications through two case studies; one using a prominent eHealth messaging standard, namely HL7 v3 [1], and the other using Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) [2] Profiles and to describe how these testing requirements can be addressed through an automated, modular and scenario-based testing framework, namely TestBATN. METHODS Summarizing the conformance testing requirements of HL7 v3 messages. Illustrating the interoperability testing requirements of IHE Profiles through a scenario based on the IHE XDS, IHE XDS-MS and IHE PIX profiles. Explaining how these requirements can be handled through a dynamic and configurable test framework addressing all the layers in the interoperability stack within a single test scenario. RESULTS Conformance and interoperability testing are necessary to maintain correct information exchange as the correctness of the exchanged data is essential in the healthcare domain. There are many standards used in eHealth that the applications need to conform. Additionally, there are profiling initiatives such as IHE and Continua Health Alliance which publish integration profiles addressing a specific clinical need or a use case and describe how to combine or use the existing standards to provide interoperability. However, as the results of our case studies demonstrate, there are many commonalities in the conformance and interoperability testing requirements of these standards and profiles and therefore an integrated testing environment is needed. CONCLUSION Our main conclusion is that rather than having individual testing tools for each standard or initiative, a generic and modular test framework exploiting the commonalities in the testing processes and fostering reusability of modular, pluggable testing components will improve the efficiency of testing. Through the TestBATN framework, we describe how this modularity can be achieved by providing common interfaces facilitating the development of adaptors which allows different testing components to be plugged into the system.

Collaborative Business Process Support in eHealth: Integrating IHE Profiles Through ebXML Business Process Specification Language

Integrating healthcare enterprise (IHE) specifies integration profiles describing selected real world use cases to facilitate the interoperability of healthcare information resources. While realizing a complex real-world scenario, IHE profiles are combined by grouping the related IHE actors. Grouping IHE actors implies that the associated business processes (IHE profiles) that the actors are involved must be combined, that is, the choreography of the resulting collaborative business process must be determined by deciding on the execution sequence of transactions coming from different profiles. There are many IHE profiles and each user or vendor may support a different set of IHE profiles that fits to its business need. However, determining the precedence of all the involved transactions manually for each possible combination of the profiles is a very tedious task. In this paper, we describe how to obtain the overall business process automatically when IHE actors are grouped. For this purpose, we represent the IHE profiles through a standard, machine-processable language, namely, Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) ebusiness eXtensible Markup Language (ebXML) Business Process Specification (ebBP) Language. We define the precedence rules among the transactions of the IHE profiles, again, in a machine-processable way. Then, through a graphical tool, we allow users to select the actors to be grouped and automatically produce the overall business process in a machine-processable format.