Is it possible to upgrade the HL7 Version in a Variant?

Are you saying the Source system will now be sending version 2.4 messages? Will all the receiving systems handle 2.4 version messages?

You can copy the variant files in the formats/hl7/2.3 directories to formats/hl7/2.4 directories.

That will establish variants with the same name in the 2.4 version – but not necessarily constructed to 2.4 structure if some of the 2.4 enhancements are to be utilized.

So some consideration needs to be given to whether the utilization of 2.4 encompasses expansion to the 2.4 message set or just 2.3 said to be 2.4.

You can then reformat all Xlates which reference those variants to specify the 2.4 variants.

Another option (I don’t prefer this) is to continue using the 2.3 IB variant for the IB 2.4 messages if no structural changes are utilized and no fields introduced in 2.4 are utilized. If an OB System requires the version number of the MSH be 2.4 but the messages are structurally unchanged from 2.3 you can change each Xlate to COPY 2.4 to the appropriate MSH field. I don’t like these hacks as they undoubtedly will present you with issues in the future.

I have a lot of other thoughts regarding the topic of variant usage (not just HL/7) and if you would like to discuss the above or my other thoughts in more detail, email me.