Fetching data from cerner's EMR / EHR

Question

I don't have much idea in medical domain.

We evaluating a requirement from our client who is using Cerner EMR system

As per the requirement we need to expose the Cerner EMR or fetch some EMR / EHR data and to display it in SharePoint 2013 portal. To meet this requirement what kind of integration options Cerner proposes. Is there any API’s or Web services exposed which can be used to build custom solutions for the same?

As far as I know Cerner did expose EMR / EHR information in HL7 format, but i don't have any idea how to access that.

I had also requested Cerner for the same awaiting replies from their end.

If anybody who have associated with similar kind of job can through some light and provide me with some insights.

Answer 1

You will need to request an interface between your organization and the facility with the EMR. An interface in the Health Care IT world is not the same as a GUI. Is is the mechanism (program/tool) that transfers HL7 data between one entity and the other. There will probably be a cost to have an interface setup. However, that is the traditional way Cerner communicates with 3rd parties. HIPAA laws will require that this connection be very secure.

You might also see if the facility with the EMR has an existing interface that produces the info you are after. You may be able to share that data or have a flat file generated from that interface that you could get access to. Because of HIPAA regulations, your client may be reluctant to share information in that manner.

I would suggest you start with your client's interface/integration team. They would be the ones that manage the information into and out of Cerner. They could also shed some light on how they prefer to see things done.

Good Luck

Answer 2

There are two ways of achieving this as I know. One is a direct connectivity to Cerner's Oracle database. This seems less likely to be possible as Cerner doesn't allow other vendors to have a direct access to their database.

The other way is to use Cerner's mPage Web Services. We have achieved this using mPage Web Services. The client needs to host the web services on a IBM WAS or some other container. We used WAS as that was readily available to us. Once the hosting is done, you will get a URL and using that you can execute any CCL program which will return you the data in JSON/XML format. mPage webservice has a basic HTTP authentication.

Now, CCL has to be written in a way which can return you the data you require. We have a successful setup and have been working on this since 2014. For more details you can also try uCERN portal.

Thanks, Navin