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Message Validation

Introduction

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) maintains a validation tool that developers can use to test sample MARS HL7v2 messages against the Implementation Guide.  The tool will output Errors and/or Warnings if any issues are found with sample message.  Errors indicate severe issues that could prevent the message from being processed by public health systems.  Warnings indicate issues that should be addressed but are not severe enough to prevent the message from being successfully reported.

Two MARS profiles are available to validate against:

  1. Production - This profile should be used by developers who have already onboarded to a data hub and are actively reporting test results or have done so in the past.
  2. Onboarding - This profile should be used by developers who are in the process of onboarding to a data hub.  The rules it validates against are stricter than those of the 'Production' profile.

Instructions

Important: Messages should be stripped of PII/PHI before they are validated.

  1. Launch the NIST validator
  2. Upper right > Tool Scopes > Select 'RADx MARS HL7v2'
  3. Upper menu bar > Select 'Context-free'
  4. Drop-down menu > Select the 'Onboarding' or 'Production' profile (see above for a description of each)
  5. Left hand menu > Click '1.HL7 2.5.1 IG'
  6. Copy and paste the HL7v2 message in the 'Message Content' box.  Ensure the message contains no PII/PHI.
  7. Click 'Validate'
  8. Any Errors or Warnings will appear in the 'Message Validation Result' box

Inline Validation

To ensure the each reported message is valid, a MARS compatible data hub will pass each message through a programmatic version of the NIST validator before transmitting the message to downstream health systems.  If Errors identified, the message will not be transmitted downstream until the Errors are fixed by the developer.  If Warnings are identified (with no Errors), the message will be transmitted downstream, and the developer will be notified about the Warnings.