Transport (SOAP)

Transmission and receipt of health data from one system to another is achieved through an agreed-upon transport layer. In 2011, a panel of industry experts concluded that SOAP Web Services was the best fit for meeting the needs of transmitting immunization data via HL7 messaging. The experts also defined a WSDL for all trading partners to implement, with the goal that all trading partners implement at least the nationally-specified WSDL. This doesn’t preclude IIS and others from supporting additional transport layers.

Implementation Resources:

• Formal Specification (v1.2) [13 pages] (Updated Sep 2015)
  Defines transport, security, and SOAP operations, parameters, and faults for SOAP-based HL7 submissions and queries to an IIS. This specification contains the SOAP WSDL, which should be implemented without modification.
• Implementation Testing Support
  The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) provides testing tools to ensure consistent and conformant implementation of the CDC WSDL. The tooling can test both the sender and the receiver sides of the CDC WSDL.

Educational Material:

• The American Immunization Registry Association (AIRA) has developed three educational resources related to SOAP and the CDC WSDL. The short and directed resources cover the following topics:
  • Transport 101
  • SOAP WSDL 101
  • SOAP Transition Strategies

Background Information:

• SOAP Transport Protocol Mini-Guide [4 pages]
  A summary of the recommendation of SOAP and its impacts, supported by IISSB efforts to recommend a standard transport option that grantees and other healthcare systems would support for immunization interoperability.
• Transport Layer Protocol Recommendation [75 pages]
  This document details the panel’s methodology, justifications for its recommendation, detailed acknowledgement of the other transport protocols, and a summary of the impacts of a SOAP implementation.