Standards and Guidelines for Electronic Medical Record Systems in ...

Data Transmission via HL7 and SDMX Messaging
1. EMR systems are required to have the capability to transmit and receive a defined
minimum set of patient data via standardized HL7 messaging.
2. EMR systems are required to have the capability to transmit aggregate data to the DHIS
via standardized SDMX messaging.
Data Format Standards
With the exchange of information, data standards have been developed to ensure consistency of
both structure and meaning of data between information systems.
Standard formats require agreement both on format (syntax) and meaning (semantics). Format is
the order and structure of specific data fields, while meaning is expressed through the choice of
coding schemes, rules, and other constraints on content.
Standard formats require agreement both on format (syntax) and meaning (semantics). For
transmission of patient-level data, the most widely implemented messaging standard in use in the
public health sector is recommended. The following international protocols are highly
recommended:
Health Level 7 (HL7): HL7 is a flexible standard by which various health care systems can
communicate with each other; it is typically used for transmission of patient level data.
There are no well-established standards for aggregate data or indicator transmission; however
there are two that are emerging:
i. Quality Reporting Document Architecture (QRDA) 19 is being developed on the HL7
Clinical Document Architecture model.
ii. Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX-HD) 20 is a data exchange format.
SDMX-HD has been developed by WHO, based on the ISO SDMX reporting standard, to
facilitate exchange of indicator definitions and data in aggregate data systems.
19 http://wiki.hl7.org/index.php?title=Quality_Reporting_Document_Architecture
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