Interoperability Course Series

The concept of interoperability can seem very technical, but once you start to compare interoperability with communication, you will see that many of the difficulties and paradoxes we face in human communication are also encountered in computer system interoperability.

The Interoperability Course Series is designed to provide a common base-knowledge of interoperability for immunization public health professionals and technologists working in the immunization space. Syllabus, registration, and other information for available courses can be found in the links below.

1. Connecting Systems

Objective
The materials from the Connecting Systems course are designed to provide a fundamental understanding of digital information encoding for both transmission and storage. Understanding how computers communicate through this module will be an important foundation for learning how immunization messages are transmitted and the importance of securing these systems.

What you will learn

As a result of reviewing these materials, participants will learn:

• That all digital data is essentially a series of numbers that work together to represent letters, words, colors, sounds, pictures, and even software applications
• How digital data is represented in hex form and then grouped into bytes, kilobytes, and megabytes
• How to convert data from binary to hex to American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) text and back again

 2. HL7 v2.5.1 Immunization Update (VXU) Messages

Objective

This on-demand course offers an in-depth review of HL7 v2.5.1 VXU messages used for updating and querying immunization information systems (IIS). Participants will learn about use cases, key segments and fields, and VXU structure, and they will see examples of VXU messaging. The content covers message conformance with HL7 Implementation Guide standards and considerations for jurisdictional processing.

What you will learn

As a result of completing this self-paced course, participants will be able to: 

• Describe use cases for VXU messages
• Identify segments used in VXU messages
• Describe the type of information conveyed in each segment of a VXU message
• Identify key fields within VXU messages and how IIS use the information conveyed
• Identify how the structure and contents of a VXU vary based on the use case and information being conveyed, in alignment with National IG specifications
• Relate National IG VXU specifications to jurisdictional IIS VXU processing

Key information

• Syllabus–provides course outline
• Estimated time to complete –up to 4 hours
• Core IIS competencies –interoperability and data quality
• Registration –register here to receive access to course materials in RISE, AIRA’s learning management system (LMS)

For more information, please email [email protected].