Technical guidelines

Last updated: 2023-07-10 10:29

A. Content of the messages

Valuesets

  • In case the patient has a NISS or a NISS Bis number, the regular address information, date of birth and gender should not be provided.
  • In case the patient has no NISS or a NISS Bis number, a NISS should be created using the ConsultRN integration in EMD or HIS:
  • In case the patient is a minor (child), one of the parents, guardian or legal representative, should be provided as first contact person to (“FirstNamesContp1”; “LastNameContp1”; “TelephoneNumberMobileContp1”).

B. Format of the requested file

B.1. JAVASCRIPT OBJECT NOTATION (JSON)

Every requested field has to be provided also the optional fields, even when the values are missing or false. The reason is that this way every record will have the same structure. Although this is not necessary, this assures us that the field names are correctly spelled. If we do not find a field, we will know something is wrong and we can act upon this.
The structure of the record is completely flattened and this is done on purpose. This makes it easier and more transparent to load the data in a database and compare the original record with the result programmatically.

Here, you can find the link to an example of the “LaboratoryTestResult” in JSON format:

Name of the JSON message

We kindly ask you to use following names for the JSON messages:

  • RIZIVnrSender_LaboratoryTestResult_yymmddhhmmss

Points of attention

  • Multiple records can be included in a .json file.
  • All records should have exactly the same structure (missing values and ‘false’ have to be present also).

B.2. Comma-Separated Values (CSV)

Every requested field has to be provided, including the optional fields, even when the values are missing or false. The reason is that this way every record will have the same structure. In a csv containing more than 1 record this has of course be the case. This way the complete csv can be treated as one table.

Here, you can find the link to an example of the “LaboratoryTestResult” in CSV format:

Example of message “LaboratoryTestResult” in CSV format:

Name of the CSV messages

We kindly ask you to use following names for the csv files:

  • RIZIVnrSender_LaboratoryTestResult_yymmddhhmmss

Points of attention

  • A csv can contain multiple records.
  • All records should have exactly the same structure (missing values and ‘false’ have to be present also).

C. Description of the transportation methods

C.1. sFTP

You can send us the requested files directly to our SFTP server. We need you to give us information so we can set it up specifically for your organization. You can do this by sending a mail to covid19lab.healthdata@sciensano.be.

The mail has to contain:

  • Organization name
  • Email address of the person of your organization who will receive
    • the account information
    • the public key to use when authenticating
    • a document describing the connection information
    • a test file that we would like you to send to our SFTP server

Points of attention

We have to be sure that the complete file has arrived before reading the file. We propose to do this by means of another file with the same name as the file with the data but with extension ‘ok’. You have to send this ‘.ok’ file after sending the file with the data. This way we know which files are ready for integration.

  • The encoding of the file is expected to be in UTF-8.