RTF

[Carmen Lewis]

I have a new system that has asked me whether or not I can send messages in Rich Text Format.  We are currently sending HL7 result messages to the system.  They are pathology reports, but of course they loose their formatting and display horribly.  What can I do to make them display correctly?

Topic

[Joe Halbrook]

Carmen,

We have a transcription system that sends us transcribed reports in .RTF format.  We first convert the .RTF document (in the OBX.5 field) to a .PDF format (using a custom converter program written in-house) and then send that on to our EMR.  We receive the .RTF in Cloverleaf and then send it on to our converter program using a raw route.

Are you asking if you can accept the .RTF through Cloverleaf to send on to a receiving system, or are you asking how to convert the text HL7 message content to .RTF format?

[Carmen Lewis]

I am asking how to convert the hl7 text to RTF format, if it’s possible.

Thanks for your reply.

Carmen

[Joe Halbrook]

Carmen,

If the HL7 message content is coming to the engine in plain text format, I don’t know how you could convert to .RTF formt, as there would be no formatting defined in the plain text.  Perhaps others may have suggestions on how you might format the plain text content to simple .RTF format for things such as bold printing of header lines, etc.

If the sending system can generate .RTF and the receiving system can accept .RTF format, then you should have no problems passing the message content in the OBX.5 field through the engine.

Joe

[David Caragay]

Carmen,

Depending on what your HL7 text looks like, you may be able to use certain key words or positions to add you own rtf formatting codes.

[Author]

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