Insights

Penford still ships ADTs over MLLP at 2 a.m. Penford also exposes a FHIR Patient endpoint for a patient-facing app. Both can be correct.

Different shapes of the same job

Sources: HL7 v2.5.1 product brief, FHIR R4, FHIR / v2 comparison notes.

When v2 is still the path of least resistance

• Mature ancillary contracts (lab, radiology, ADT bed boards) already speak v2.
• You need high-volume, low-latency event streams the other side will only certify on MLLP.
• The workflow is “notify me that something happened,” not “let me query the chart.”

When FHIR is the better fit

• App developers expect HTTPS, OAuth, and JSON.
• You need targeted reads/searches (GET /Patient?identifier=…) instead of a firehose.
• An implementation guide (US Core, etc.) already profiles the resources you must store.

Coexistence at Penford

A registration in PENEHR may still emit ADT^A04 to Harbor Engine while a separate FHIR facade serves Patient/pmc-maya to the portal. Mapping PID-3 / PID-5 / PID-7 into Patient.identifier / name / birthDate is a deliberate transform — dates change shape (19880314 → 1988-03-14), and sex codes change vocabulary (F → female).

See the FHIR viewer, glossary, and Academy preview for both tracks.