Altova, a data integration vendor, has included Health Level Seven (HL7) and Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) standards support within MapForce Version 2009, an integrated suite of XML, database, and UML tools.
MapForce 2009 also now provides native support for additional databases, including Oracle 11g, SQL Server 2008, and PostgreSQL 8, Altova says.
HL7 is a collection of message formats used by healthcare organizations to comply with international mandates for the secure transmission of clinical data. XBRL is a data exchange meta-language mandated for use within the financial services sector.
Altova employs the same integration engine to support both the healthcare and financial services industry-specific standards, Alexander Falk, president and CEO for Altova, tells 5 Minute Briefing. "We take HL7 data and store it in the database," he explains. "We make the data available for reporting." HL7 is based on the electronic data interchange format, which Altova moves into the HL7 standard.
The XBRL solution employs the same technology, though the requirements are different, Falk says. "HL7 requires that data be moved in both directions," he explains. Our XBRL solution moves data from the Oracle database into production XBRL."
MapForce 2009 supports mapping of HL7 data, with the addition of support for HL7 v2.x EDI messages. Users can insert an HL7 message as the source or target of any data mapping project and then translate it to and from XML, databases, flat files, Excel 2007 (OOXML), Web services, and other EDI formats such as HIPAA X12. MapForce 2009 ships with the configuration files for HL7 v2.6 and inherently supports HL7 v3, an XML format.
MapForce 2009 also provides support for mapping XBRL taxonomies, including dimensional taxonomies, as a source or target component for data integration. End-users can map XBRL data to or from any other supported data formats including, XML, databases, flat files, Excel 2007 (OOXML), EDI, and Web services. This allows users to easily extract data from back-end systems such as databases, Excel files, accounting systems, or XML, and convert it into fully compliant XBRL filing documents. Support for XBRL mapping also allows users to aggregate and transform received XBRL data for storage and analysis in back-end systems. Conversions can be run on a one-time basis or automated for periodic filing through code generation in Java, C#, or C++, or via the command line.
"With the adoption of XBRL already in full swing and the expectation that HL7 will become a part of the United States' Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the future, organizations need affordable tools for transforming data between legacy formats, back-end systems, and modern standards," Falk adds.
Altova MapForce Version 2009 is available in Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions, the vendor says. For more information, visit the Altova website.