

HL7 - Why Make It Simple If It Can Be Complicated? - alexitosrv
http://hl7-watch.blogspot.com/2008/11/why-make-it-simple-if-it-can-be.html

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russell
I don't know anything about HL7 or HL7-XML, but this sounds like letting loose
people that dont know zilch about the implementation side of things. In this
case HL7 is translated into UML because the people involved know UML, not XML.
Then the UML is translated into XML by the push of a button, generating
monstrous XML.

Rant: dont let your tools substitute for personal knowledge of the domain.

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sketerpot
How can someone not know XML when it's actually relevant to their job? It's
just a tree with a fairly simple structure. Anybody who avoids learning XML
because they already know UML is just not even trying. Seriously, learning it
takes like half an hour at most.

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ibsulon
HL7... what a nightmare! I remember having to work with it, and it was a
convoluted solution where every provider and vendor had a different
interpretation.

As bad as 2.3.1 is, it's still worlds better than 3. The best thing that can
happen is for 3 to be scrapped. The worst part is its model. I worked with it
for the purposes of PHIN-LDM, and I've never seen a worse clusterfuck. It made
dailywtf look positively logical.

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umjames
As if HL7 wasn't complicated enough.

I've written my own HL7 (pre-XML v2.x) message parser and generator in Java
for work. I'd really like to not have to touch that code again, if possible.
My code is easy enough to understand, but I don't want to have to rewrite it
support this non-standard XML.

Just putting XML on the name of something doesn't instantly make it all
easier.

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dmillar
Inefficiencies in health care standards are common, unfortunately. Look at
DICOM, for example. Nearly every PACS on the planet uses their own method of
abstracting data and transferring/storing medical imaging.

HL7-XML is already leaps and bounds ahead of the current spec, even with its
obvious inadequacies.

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msie
My mind is screaming: "Just Fix It!".

