HL7 Interface Platform Development at SimonMed Imaging

Client: SimonMed Imaging

Industry: Healthcare / Radiology

Challenge

SimonMed was heavily reliant on expensive third-party consulting firms to build HL7 interfaces with referring provider EMR systems. Each interface typically cost between $20,000 and $50,000 to implement, and early interfaces were slow to deliver a significant volume of referrals. The company needed a scalable, cost-effective way to integrate with hundreds of providers to support aggressive growth goals.

Solution

I designed and developed a custom HL7 interface engine using .NET and BizTalk, enabling SimonMed to control its own integration capabilities in-house. Key features included:

• Reusable Interface Templates: Built standard integration templates that could be rapidly customized for new providers.
• Help Desk Deployment: Empowered non-developer support staff to configure and launch new interfaces in less than an hour using standard workflows.
• Rapid Customization: Enabled the creation of fully custom interfaces from scratch within a week at an average internal cost of ~$1,000.
• Scalability: Designed the system to easily accommodate integrations with a wide range of EMRs and provider systems.

Results

• Integrated with over 60 EMRs and hundreds of individual referring providers.
• Reduced average interface deployment time from months to under a week (or under an hour for standard providers).
• Lowered integration costs by over 95% compared to third-party consultants.
• HL7 interfaces generated approximately 40% of all patient referrals by the time I left the company.

Summary of Impact

By building a scalable, in-house HL7 integration engine, I helped SimonMed drastically reduce costs, speed up onboarding of referring providers, and support significant growth in referral volumes. This initiative created a sustainable competitive advantage that positioned the company for continued expansion across new markets and partnerships.