Re: [Hardhats-members] VistA HL7 resources

[Gregory Woodhouse]

On Nov 11, 2005, at 11:02 AM, Robert Leonardo wrote: Other than the HL7 documentation on the VA website, does anyone know of any resources to help me create a working HL7 interface. It seems to me that you would have pretty in depth knowledge of the database and M language to configure anything HL7. The VA docs assume that you have a fair knowledge of the system and not a noob like me.   Once one is created is it possible to save it to something like an export file for future use with other databases?   Thanks in advance,   Robert Leonardo I replied to the other list, too.  You are absolutely right. The VistA HL7 package essentially consists of two pieces: a messaging engine and a low level API. There have been some attempts to create tools at a higher level of abstraction, but right now, you're pretty much stuck with custom applications. It's not just HL7 though, historically, VistA developers have preferred to work at a low level because it is fast and easy, and there's been little demand for higher level tools. I've developed (and used) some fairly simple tools based on abstract machines (or automata), but the approaches I've been investigating to the general problem of building interfaces at are still somewhat experimental (and theoretical). I am not aware of any generally useful tools for building interfaces without writing low level code. The essence of the problem is that high level tools generally require a semantic model that is compositional, but compositionality and concurrency are somewhat at odds with one another. I've been exploring tools (such as monads) that are used in functional programming to get the interference resulting from concurrency under control, but it's not an easy problem. === Gregory Woodhouse [EMAIL PROTECTED] "The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition." --Carl Sagan