Interoperability of Medical Information Systems Using JAVA/CORBA with HL7

The HL7 standards facilitate the exchange of data between heterogeneous computer-based healthcare applications. The Object Management Group's (OMG) Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) is a framework and specification for a distributed computing system based on object-oriented software technology. We undertook a prototype implementation of a hospital information system based on CORBA. This involved the development of Java clients that can query backend medical systems through HL7 query messages, and a CORBA server that can directly interface with any CORBA compliant distributed object-based system. This paper discusses the lessons learned during the course of the implementation of a JAVA/CORBA based HL7 system through proprietary interface engines available at one of the most modern hospitals in Australia.