PIX/PDQ Manager Overview

Sun's PIX/PDQ Manager provides a flexible solution to healthcare integration needs in the form of a lightweight enterprise service bus (ESB) that can be easily customized and extended to meet your integration needs. The processing logic in the PIX/PDQ Manager is based on the guidelines and standards put forth by Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) to assure compatibility with other vendors and healthcare organizations.

About the PIX/PDQ Manager

The PIX/PDQ Manager forms a specialized implementation of HL7 messaging that facilitates patient health information exchange, and supports both HL7 v2 and HL7 v3 messaging. HL7 v2 is supported through the HL7 Binding Component using MLLP v1. HL7 v3 is supported through the HTTP Binding Component using SOAP 1.1 and 1.2.

The PIX/PDQ Manager leverages the advanced standardization and matching algorithms of Sun Master Index to cross-reference and uniquely identify the patients in your healthcare organization. Master Index provides a single complete view of the participants in your healthcare system and is able to quickly reconcile which information is associated with which patient, allowing you to quickly create a complete medical history.

The PIX/PDQ Manager processes messages based on the IHE frameworks, which define how to process HL7 messages using existing standards when available. In compliance with these frameworks, the PIX/PDQ Manager generates and maintains an audit repository of all events processed by the manager, and also maintains a trace record of how each message was processed through the system and by which components. Information about the state of the PIX/PDQ Manager components is provided by a common logging, alerting, error handling, and reporting mechanism. The PIX/PDQ Manager provides a monitoring and management tool where you can monitor the audit repository, log messages, and message traces.

GlassFish ESB Components in the PIX/PDQ Manager

Sun's PIX/PDQ Manager uses various components of GlassFish ESB such as HTTP, JMS, and HL7 Binding Components; the BPEL Service Engine; Composite Applications; Java EE EJBs; and Sun Master Index. The solution includes the following GlassFish ESB components:

• Sun Master IndexThe Sun Master Index provides patient identifier cross-referencing and unique identification of patient records. It also maintains a centralized repository of each patient's most current information. You can customize many features of the Master Index, such as the queries, match and standardization logic, the data fields stored, and how the single best record for each patient is formed.

• PIX ConsoleThe PIX Console is a system management and monitoring tool that allows you to view records in the ATNA audit repository, the PIX/PDQ processing log, message traces (how each message was processed through the PIX/PDQ Manager). The console includes a Domain Manager that allows you to update and add information about the systems, or domains, that share information in the PIX/PDQ system, including domain identification information, subscriptions to outbound notifications, and application configurations and variables.

• BPEL Service EngineThe BPEL Service Engine orchestrates services to define the processing flow and business logic of messages through the PIX/PDQ system, including routing and transforming data, mapping data fields, and calling the appropriate functions from other PIX/PDQ components. The BPEL processes also write the required data to the ATNA audit repository, and are responsible for generating HL7 ACK/NACK responses. Each BPEL process is specific to either HL7 v2 or HL7 v3.

• HL7 Binding ComponentThe HL7 Binding Component supports the HL7 messaging structure up to version 2.6 and defines the communication protocols for connecting to the HL7 messaging systems The HL7 Binding Component in the PIX/PDQ Manager is configured to use the Minimal Lower Layer Protocol (MLLP) version 1 to connect to external systems.

• HTTP Binding ComponentThe HTTP Binding Component supports the HL7 v3 messaging structure and defines the communication protocols for connecting to the HL7 messaging systems. The HTTP Binding Component in the PIX/PDQ Manager uses the SOAP 1.1 and 1.2 protocols to connect with external systems.

• JMS Binding Component: The JMS Binding Component is used for PIX outbound notifications published by Master Index. Notifications are published to JMS topics and then distributed to all subscribed domains.