DRAFT - The specification is currently in development and subject to significant change. It is not ready for limited roll-out or production level use.

CA:eReC Integration Patterns

This specification provides several different integration methods based on HL7 FHIR standards, that serve as building blocks for medical systems to achieve interoperability when participating in eReferral and eConsult workflows and data exchanges.

  • FHIR messaging paradigm provides a standard way for a software application to transmit information directly to other trusted applications using a backend FHIR API. For details, see HL7 FHIR Messaging.

    While the format of the messages is described by the FHIR specifications, the source and destination applications exchange the messages based on a contract that specifies agreements around the content of the messages and the behavior of the two applications.

    Similarly, the transfer mechanism for the message is not specified, necessitating additional agreements to define the specific method of delivery.

    CA:eReC Messaging – the Pan-Canadian eReferral-eConsult Messaging Interoperability Specification, described in this specification, is based on the FHIR messaging paradigm, and is the basis of integrations that connect systems participating in eReferral-eConsult related exchanges to one another. In this specification, the FHIR $process-message operation is the preferred message transport mechanism.

  • SMART on FHIR (SMART App Launch Framework) provides a standard way for a software application to allow a user to securely launch another "app", with context (user and patient), using FHIR, OAuth2 Authorization Framework, OpenID Connect integration. In these integrations, SMART on FHIR is the basis of integrations that allow healthcare practitioners and service providers to access systems that provide eReferral-eConsult capabilities. For details, see HL7 SMART App Launch

  • FHIR RESTful API provides a standard way for servers to enable interactions to be performed on resources using an HTTP request/response. In these integrations, RESTful API is the basis of integrations that allows RMS Systems to search and retrieve FHIR Resources. For details, see HL7 FHIR RESTful API

Note: This specification is currently only focused on CA:eReC Messaging.