Electronic Data Exchange with MIIC
Provider organizations that participate in Minnesota Immunization Information Connection (MIIC) are eligible to exchange data. This exchange uses Health Level 7 (HL7) messaging, a nationally recognized standard for transmitting health care data between electronic systems.
Electronic data exchange is the automated transmission of HL7 messages via Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) Web Services to MIIC. All organizations interested in electronic data exchange must complete an onboarding process. Learn more on Onboarding for Electronic Data Exchange with MIIC.
Health Level 7 (HL7)
HL7 is a nationally recognized standard for electronic data exchange between systems housing health care data. The HL7 standard provides critical support for this exchange of information by defining a syntax for the messages that carry this information.
There are two types of HL7 messages that MIIC accepts:
- Unsolicited Vaccine Update (VXU): A message type used to send MIIC demographic and immunization data to create or update a client record.
- Query By Parameter (QBP): A message type used to query MIIC for a client’s immunization history (with or without forecasted recommendations).
There are two types of HL7 messages that MIIC sends back:
- Segment Pattern Response (RSP): A response message to a QBP when client information could be matched to a single client record in MIIC.
- Acknowledgement (ACK):
- A response message to a QBP when the client information could not be matched to a single client record in MIIC.
- A response message to a VXU that has been processed by MIIC.
The National Implementation Guide allows for jurisdictional refinement. Review Minnesota-specific implementation guides for HL7 2.5.1 r1.5 when working with MIIC:
SOAP Web Services
SOAP Web Services are a standards-based method of allowing one computer to access functions in another computer through the Internet. Functions are called using SOAP requests, which are formatted as XML (eXtensible Markup Language) messages.
This is a secure method which uses the same ports as Internet browsers and uses existing web application protocols. Specifications for sending HL7 messages to MIIC via SOAP Web Services are available at SOAP/Web Services Specifications for Data Exchange (PDF).
