By: Kippi (Amos) Bordowitz
Outburn has exciting news for those seeking to optimize healthcare data interchange: the free-to-use and open-source FHIR® mapping and conversion tool, FUME Community, is now available. FUME empowers users to boost their proficiency and precision when handling healthcare data. We see FUME as the industry standard for any organization working with FHIR.
Interoperable and reusable, FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) is the standard for exchanging healthcare data that is quickly garnering traction. Although it is the most ideal means of data-sharing between systems, converting data into FHIR-compliant resources and back can be a resource-intensive and time-consuming process, with a steep learning curve.
For a creative solution to data conversion, FUME Community Edition rises to the challenge by offering a scalable and robust tool. Regardless of the format in which medical data is stored, FUME Community Edition welcomes a variety of input formats, from HL7v2 to XML and CSV. Its support system for legacy systems to FHIR is impressive.
Why did we create it?
As FHIR specialists, we were surprised to find that there simply wasn't a reliable and scalable tool for making the kinds of transformations that are required in the world of FHIR, with the biggest pain points being HL7v2 and CSV. Another problem was with old legacy systems, the kind that organizations spend a lot of money maintaining, rather than moving to newer systems – a daunting and expensive undertaking. Such organizations could certainly benefit from a tool able to map its data structures in ease and transform them to FHIR.
Seeing that no one has yet risen to the challenge, we figured we will do it in-house, for our own purposes. It was when we saw how well FUME worked and how easy it was to teach our clients to use it, that we truly grasped what a boon this could be for the international FHIR community at large.
Our offering to the FHIR eco-system
It was then that we decided we wanted to share FUME with the world. While there are many organizations that would happily pay for the Enterprise edition, we wanted to allow any FHIR user to be able to use the tool, so we created the open source “Community” edition, as it is meant for the FHIR community.
FUME Community Edition is offered as a free and open-source solution for anyone to download and use. FUME ensures seamless transitions to FHIR from a variety of dated systems without any friction. It is highly scalable, though large organizations would definitely benefit from opting for the Enterprise edition.
Including HL7v2, CSV, XML, and any other medical data format, FUME Community Edition has the capability to support a vast variety of input formats.
FUME is in active development. It has a rich API, which will keep growing, as we identify more possibilities and user requirements. This is where you, the users, can help us: Please provide us with feedback and requests, so we will know what can help you make the most out of FUME.
Getting started with FUME Community
The full repo, including full installation instructions can be found on our GitHub page (clicking the link will open a new tab). Please make sure to follow the instructions carefully. If you find yourself running into difficulties, feel free to contact us!
For the entire API, including all functions, operators and expressions, see our API Docs (clicking the link will open a new tab).
Want to try FUME online first? Not a problem. We’ve created a live sandbox for you to use. Don’t hesitate to make use of it, as it also gives you the ability to save your maps for use with FUME community!
Finally, watch our tutorials. You can find the either on our blog or on our YouTube page.
To conclude, we are excited. We really want to hear from any who chose to give FUME community a try. We really think it can make a big difference and we will be very happy to hear any feedback and suggestions. Check out the FUME homepage for more information!
Good luck!
