Overview
When Simple Laboratories acquired Lifescan Health, they inherited two separate Laboratory Information Systems, five independent Mirth Connect instances, three on-premises VM environments, and a data center that needed to move. I led the engineering side of the integration.
This was less a software project and more a systems surgery — the kind where touching the wrong thing at the wrong moment disrupts live patient care.
Scope
HL7 Messaging Standardization
The two labs had different HL7 implementations — different segment usage, different custom Z-segments, different encoding rules. I audited every active interface across both systems and standardized message formats to a single specification that satisfied:
- HIPAA requirements for PHI handling in transit
- Downstream system expectations (EMRs, billing platforms, reference labs)
- Both labs’ LIS vendors’ integration constraints
Mirth Connect Consolidation
Five separate Mirth instances across the two orgs — each with its own channel configurations, transformer scripts, and deployment procedures. I consolidated them into two environments (Production and Dev/QA), rewrote and validated every JavaScript transformer with the lab director, and documented the full channel inventory for the first time.
Hybrid Cloud Migration
Unified three on-premises VM environments into a hybrid architecture using Microsoft Azure (IaaS) and Summit Data Center in Chicago. This included a full data center migration from NetSource, Inc. — planned and executed without downtime to production interfaces.
What Made This Hard
- All work had to happen without disrupting live clinical operations
- HL7 interfaces carry PHI; every change required compliance review
- Staff from two orgs had different conventions, tooling, and institutional knowledge
- The acquisition timeline was aggressive
Results
- Single unified Mirth environment managing all lab interfaces
- HL7 messaging standardized across both legacy systems
- Infrastructure consolidated from three on-prem environments to one hybrid cloud architecture
- Full data center migration completed
Stack
Mirth Connect · HL7 v2 · JavaScript · Microsoft Azure · VMware · Linux · HIPAA · SQL