HL7 with CORBA and OLE: software components for healthcare

Componentized software promises easier, more fine-grained integration of disparate software systems. Variations of the technology can help to achieve tight coupling among disparate programs on the clinical workstation or across wide area networks. HL7 members have been designing extensions to the protocol for the exchange of healthcare information using Microsoft OLE and CORBA technologies. Extensive prototyping has been performed, including the simultaneous interconnection of sixteen different vendor systems exchanging demographic data and lab results. The first release of this standard will be notable in that the specifications for OLE and CORBA will be entirely isomorphic, they will be based directly, on HL7 version 2.3, and they may easily be implemented in systems that are not written using object-oriented programming tools. As HL7 version 3 is developed on an object-oriented model of healthcare information, the same approach will be used so information about the objects may be shared using CORBA and OLE.