HL7 Conformance Testing with Message Maker

The Message Maker Project is a collaboration effort between the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Health Level 7 (HL7) Standards Organization. NIST is directing their efforts towards the development of a conformance-testing tool that automatically generates test messages for HL7 Version 2 message specifications. The messages can be used to test systems for conformance. An early prototype of Message Maker is available at http://www.nist.gov/messagemaker .

Test messages are based on message profiles provided by the user. Profiles are created from tools such as the Messaging Workbench and are represented in an XML format. A message profile provides an unambiguous definition of a message that specifically states the optional constructs and processing rules. The correct implementation of a profile is essential for ensuring interoperability among HL7 systems. To achieve this, a comprehensive set of test messages is needed. Message Maker creates these messages automatically and dynamically. Messages are varied to test different aspects of the profile requirements.

Downloads

IHE Open Source Project: XDS software (html file)

Message Maker Prototype (html file)

Healthcare Standards Landscape (html file)

Healthcare Information Standards and Testing, A Concept Paper (pdf file)

Conformance Testing and Certification Framework, White Paper (pdf file)

What is This Thing Called Conformance, White Paper (html file)

Principles for Writing Conformance Criteria (pdf file)

Building HL7 EHR-S Conformance Criteria, Slide presentation (html file)