August 6, 2008-Jason Bolssen, MT Clinical Integration Engineer, Avera McKennan Hospital writes;
I've used a few interface engines in the past, notably both Cloverleaf and Summit’s Integration Engine.
Our experience with Cloverleaf was not very good for various reasons; notably reliability, cost and the learning curve and lack of documentation once getting past the very basic setup of the product.
Currently, we are using the Summit Integration Engine. Part of the engine is built on top of Microsoft Biztalk, while part is a standalone HL7 adapter. We've found that this product has given us a whole lot of flexibility in terms of the speed of the individual interface setup and the amount of customization that we have been able provide. One of the largest reasons for us switching to Summit's engine was that it provided us a way to leverage our VB.NET skills which is used in the front-end or back-end scripting in the HL7 Adapter or within Biztalk itself through the use of the Biztalk functoids.
Overall, it's been a great product for us and Summit has been one of the best 3rd party vendors I've ever worked with. They have consistently been on top of the few support calls that we have had to make and have been quick to respond to any of the questions that have been posed to their support staff.
August 4, 2008-Dave Schwellendbach, Sr. Data Architect, Silver Cross Hospital writes;
I heard you had were inquiring about interface engines between Meditech and other vendor systems on the Meditech-L and I wanted to let you know that we have been using Summit’s Integration Suite [link to Products/Healthcare Systems Integration/Summit Integration Suite] for almost 2 years and have been extremely happy with the product and even more impressed with Summit’s customer support and professional services.
We are currently adding all new HL7 interfaces to the Summit interface engine which has included ADT, Lab and OE and our plan is to consolidate all of our point-to-point HL7 interfaces through the engine so we can reduce annual interface maintenance costs. We’re also planning to get the Summit Hot Box (if budget allows) so that we have a redundant Summit Integration Suite in place to provide failover capability and that can also be used for testing purposes.
August 5, 2008-Becky Blevins, Application Analyst, Ephraim McDowell Health writes;
We are using Summit's Interface engine. A good grasp of HL7 messaging is really all that is needed. The engine is user friendly and the steps are easy to follow. The engine more than paid for itself for us within the first three months with just ADT feeds. We appreciate being able to set our own timelines for projects and not having to wait for interfaces from outside sources.