Overview: Interoperability Toolkit (ITK) Message Bundle

Background

To enable a standardised structure to carry information regarding common end-to-end distribution requirements, two profiles have been defined, the ITK Message Bundle and the ITK Message Header that combine to make up the ITK Distribution Bundle.

The ITK Distribution Bundle may be used to wrap a payload. This provides a lightweight structure to carry information relating to the end-to-end technical distribution of payloads. The ITK Distribution Bundle is an autonomous and transport agnostic design, whilst enabling audit, access control and authentication as required by both sender and receivers.

This specification also defines an Infrastructure Acknowledgement and a Business Acknowledgement which may be used with the ITK Distribution Bundle.

The ITK Distribution Bundle

The diagram below shows a schematic of the basic ITK Distribution Bundle structure.

The ITK message bundle is the container for the ITK message header and any payload. The message header contains information that pertains to the payload content. The Payload can be any data that is being sent to the recipient.

Example Payload Structures

COFE Document Structure Example

The diagram below is an example of a CDA on FHIR (COFE) document payload that may be used with the ITK Distribution Bundle. When sending FHIR documents a COFE bundle is used.

Infrastructure Acknowledgement Example

The diagram below is an example of an Infrastructure Acknowledgement. Note: there is no actual payload as all the information is carried in the message header resource.

Business Acknowledgement Example

The diagram below is an example of a Business Acknowledgement that may be used with the ITK message bundle.

This DMS is published as a 'work in progress' version and as such is subject to charge. It has been published to show the direction of travel and serve as a discussion document for parties involved with the implementation of FHIR based messages.

Further Information

This FHIR Document specification is based on and intended to be used alongside the published FHIR DSTU2 1.0.1 (October 2015) specification.