Interoperability Course Series

The idea of interoperability can seem quite different from day-to-day activities that humans engage in, 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. This free series is comprised of five courses taught by AIRA staff through live instruction and pre-recorded videos. Registration information and participation requirements can be found on each individual course page.

Interoperability Courses

1. Connecting Systems

Objective

The objective of the Connecting Systems course is to provide a basic understanding of how information is encoded digitally for both transmission and storage.

What you will learn

First, you'll learn that all digital data is essentially a series of numbers that work together to represent letters, words, colors, sound, pictures, and even software applications. Next, you'll be shown how this digital data is represented in hex form and then grouped into bytes, kilobytes, and megabytes. At the end you should be able to convert data from binary to hex to American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) text and back again.

Understanding how computers communicate through this module will be an important foundation to learn how immunization messages are transmitted and the importance of securing these systems.


2. Immunization Messages

Module under development. Will be available in 2023.

Objective

The Immunization Messages course will be an in-depth review of HL7 messages used for updating and querying immunization information
systems (IIS).

What you will learn

You will learn how to confidently read and create HL7 Version 2 (V2) immunization messages. We will step through every important field, discussing the correct use and industry standards for each data type. Public health professionals and technologists will understand the structure and importance of HL7 V2 immunization messages and gain a basic understanding of the programmatic implications this data capture.


3. Conformance & Profiles

Module under development. Will be available in 2023.

Objective

The Conformance & Profiles course will be a primer on how interfaces are documented at the national and local levels.

What you will learn

You will learn how to properly read national guidance and how to create your own local guidance that follows the national standard. You will earn how you can improve your interfaces to the next level through proper and straightforward messaging profiles.


4. Onboarding

Module under development. Will be available in 2023.

Objective

The Onboarding course brings all the concepts together into a standardized process that IIS can use to ensure sending systems are sending high-quality data without taking too much time from IIS staff.

What you will learn

You will learn how to improve data quality for incoming data and reduce onboarding times.


5. Testing

Module under development. Will be available in 2023.

Objective

The Testing course will be a review of tools available from AIRA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) that can support software testing processes.

What you will learn

You will learn how simple and free tools can be used by technical and IIS teams to verify that software is operating according to national standards. The module will cover NIST testing tools and the Aggregate Analysis Reporting Tool (AART).