Common Lisp HL7-Parser

HL7-Parser for HL7 Version 2 Messages (decode / encode) for Common Lisp.

The HL7 Version 2 Messaging Standard — Application Protocol for Electronic Data Exchange in Healthcare Environments — is considered to be the workhorse of data exchange in healthcare and is the most widely implemented standard for healthcare information in the world.

Source: http://www.hl7.org/about/FAQs/index.cfm?ref=nav ("General HL7 FAQ" > "Version 2" > "What is Version 2?")

License

http://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause

Implementation

SBCL and CCL on Debian GNU/Linux

Installation

HL7-Parser is 'quickloadable':

(ql:quickload "hl7-parser")

Usage

(defun decode (string-or-stream)

hl7-parser:decode

• decode: Accepts a String or a Stream containing HL7-Messages
• returns a list of parsed messages.

(defun encode (message-list &key (delimiter "|^~\\&") (message-delimiter nil))

hl7-parser:encode

• message-list List of decoded HL7-Messages
• delimiter for encoding of Message
• message-delimiter if true then the encoded Messages ends with a #\Newline if nil then no #\Newline is appended (default nil).
• returns a list of encoded messages (Strings)

(defun test-parser (in-file out-file &key (external-format :iso-8859-1) (output-delimiters "|^~\\&"))

hl7-test:test-parser

• Read in-file (with HL7-messages) decode every line and then encode it and write it to out-file.
• Use diff in-file out-file to check if the encode and decode of the messages work.
• returns always NIL

Exeptionhandling and validation

Every String or Stream with at least eight Characters is parsed in a more or less reasonable way.

There are no syntax or HL7-Structure checking mechanisms.

Escaping

The HL7-Escaping works like in the most programming languages but in this case this is the wrong way.

The following escape sequences are defined in the HL7 2.5 Standard in Chapter 2.7.1:

\H\        start highlighting
\N\        normal text (end highlighting)
\F\        field separator
\S\        component separator
\T\        subcomponent separator
\R\        repetition separator
\E\        escape character
\Xdddd...\ hexadecimal data
\Zdddd...\ locally defined escape sequence

These escape sequences are not recognized correctly by the parser:

CL-USER> (hl7-parser:decode (format nil "MSH|^~~\\&|test|te\\F\\st^test|~cEVN||123~c~c" #\Return #\Return #\Newline ))
;; Evaluates to:
((:MESSAGE
  (:SEGMENT (:FIELD "MSH" "|^~\\&" "test" (:COMPONENT "te\\F\\st" "test") "")
   (:FIELD "EVN" "" "123"))))
;; Should evaluate to:
((:MESSAGE
  (:SEGMENT (:FIELD "MSH" "|^~\\&" "test" (:COMPONENT "te|st" "test") "")
   (:FIELD "EVN" "" "123"))))

The double-backslashes are needed because they are used within a string.

Issue: https://github.com/MartinEnders/hl7-parser/issues/1

Example

CL-USER> (hl7-parser:decode (format nil "MSH|^~~\\&|test|test^test|~cEVN||123~c~c" #\Return #\Return #\Newline ))
((:MESSAGE
  (:SEGMENT (:FIELD "MSH" "|^~\\&" "test" (:COMPONENT "test" "test") "")
   (:FIELD "EVN" "" "123") "")))

CL-USER> (hl7-parser:encode (hl7-parser:decode (format nil "MSH|^~~\\&|test|test^test|~cEVN||123~c~c" #\Return #\Return #\Newline )))
("MSH|^~\\&|test|test^test|^MEVN||123^M") ; ^M -> #\Return

CL-USER> (hl7-parser:encode (hl7-parser:decode (format nil "MSH|^~~\\&|test|test^test|~cEVN||123~c~c" #\Return #\Return #\Newline )) :message-delimiter t)
("MSH|^~\\&|test|test^test|^MEVN||123^M
") ; ^M -> #\Return

How to set Delimiters for encoding:

CL-USER> (hl7-parser:decode (format nil "MSH#^~~\\&#test#test^test#~c" #\Newline ))
((:MESSAGE (:FIELD "MSH" "#^~\\&" "test" (:COMPONENT "test" "test") "")))

CL-USER> (hl7-parser:encode (hl7-parser:decode (format nil "MSH|^~~\\&|test|test^test|~c" #\Newline )) :delimiter "#^~\\&")
("MSH#^~\\&#test#test^test#")

Pay attention to the character escaping (~ in format directive and backslashes)