To get the most out of your HIE platform and your clinical systems, you must have a sustainable source supplying the right data, at the right times, to the right people, and in the right place. Integration engines are the power plants that fuel health information exchange.

In a recent conversation with our team of interoperability specialists, we uncovered answers to several popular questions related to integration engine use.

We offer the following summary of our conversation below as a resource for everyone involved in health information exchange. Enjoy the conversation recap below.

What is the biggest misconception about Integration Engines?

A lot of folks we speak with have the impression that interoperability standards should mean that core systems (i.e. EMR, Practice Management, and Hospital Information Systems) should be able to simply exchange data directly. The reality is that is not the case. There are too many variables, mappings, and permissions to normalize across these core systems. And that approach also doesn’t scale very well, as you end up managing a large number of point-to-point interfaces. Add in the issues of different healthcare using different versions of the standards and variances in adherence to best practices, and you quickly understand the value of a tool to help efficiently manage multiple connections. Whether it’s Epic, Meditech, Cerner, NextGen, or eCW (etc), they all have their interfacing quirks.

Integration engines become the normalizer across variables and different implementations, versions or interpretations of data exchange “standards.” And, with the right planning, these engines become the most efficient way to power the flow of data.

How are Integration Engines misused in health information exchange initiatives today?

We wouldn’t necessarily say they are “misused”.  More like “under-utilized.” Often organizations have a single interoperability use case they are trying to address. In an attempt to solve that one problem, they end up missing the opportunity to design a well-architected approach that performs well at scale and supports a broad range of use cases.

It reminds us of the analogy of the guy who bought a sports car and never intended to take it out of first gear.

What Integration Engine vendors are performing well in data exchange today?

The good news is we are seeing a number of integration engines doing a great job in powering data exchange. Our customers in the regional HIEs, enterprise/hospital environments, and health IT vendors are finding success across many workflows using these tools. Here is our top list of integration engines – in alphabetic order in case you are wondering.

• Cloverleaf
• Corepoint
• Ensemble
• Iguana
• Mirth® Connect
• Rhapsody (now Lyniate)

The common denominator in the success across all of these interface engines is starting off with the right underlying technology and architecture (operating system, database, hardware resources, redundancy), validation of data quality and optimized workflows, interface testing plans and post go-live monitoring and support planning.

What is the most common mistake made when implementing an open-source interface engine?

The most common mistake is not thinking long term. It is far too easy to solve the immediate need (I have a deadline to get this interface live!) rather than think about longer-term supportability, performance, and scalability of the integration engine and/or interface. Even “free” open source integration engine tools such as Mirth® can work very well if implemented correctly.

Just downloaded Mirth Connect open source?

Learn the three things you should do before you build your first interface in a recent article – Download Mirth® Connect?  Three Must Do’s.

Need help?

At Zen Healthcare IT, we work with our clients to provide both the interoperability engine platform and the deep technical expertise needed to effectively leverage healthcare integration engines. We combine our technical acumen with strategy and project management acumen that ensures all healthcare data integration projects get done right the first time. At the end of the day, the ability to provide quality patient care is dependent on all of us working together to get the right patient information in the hands of the right clinical staff.   This effort can quite literally save lives.