Bridging the Gap between HL7 CDA and HL7 FHIR: A JSON Based Mapping

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Computer Science

Background:

• The Austrian electronic health record (EHR) system, ELGA, utilizes HL7 Clinical Document Architecture (CDA).
• Accessing granular information within ELGA's document-oriented EHR system presents challenges.
• HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) offers a modern standard for healthcare data exchange.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a method for mapping CDA documents to FHIR resources for improved data accessibility in ELGA.
• To evaluate the feasibility of reusing existing FHIR infrastructure for querying CDA data.

Main Methods:

• Developed a mapping method adapting FHIR resources to represent CDA documents.
• Created a proof-of-concept tool using Java and the HAPI-FHIR framework.
• Evaluated the mapping using publicly available FHIR servers.

Main Results:

• The proposed mapping method allows CDA documents to be represented as FHIR resources.
• The mapping approach facilitates the reuse of existing FHIR infrastructure.
• The method enables fine-grained querying of CDA data within the ELGA system.

Conclusions:

• FHIR provides a standardized approach to query CDA data in Austria at a granular level.
• This method can reduce information overload and enhance access to EHR data.
• The approach supports interoperability and efficient data retrieval within the Austrian healthcare system.