HL7-Bridge MCP

Translate, validate and explain clinical messages between HL7 v2.x and FHIR R4 — as a tool for your AI agent.

IN   ORU^R01  ·  HL7 v2, lab result
     OBX|1|NM|1554-5^GLUCOSE^LN||95|mg/dL|70-105|N|||F

OUT  FHIR R4 Bundle  →  Patient · Observation · DiagnosticReport
     ✓ conforms to US Core
     ⚠ if PID-8 (sex) were empty:
       "US Core Patient requires gender"   →  Patient.gender

⚠️ Not a medical device. Not validated for clinical decisions. Mappings require human validation before any use with real data. See SECURITY.md.

What it is

A hospital's systems speak two "languages". HL7 v2 is the old, telegraphic one that labs and admissions use to announce "patient Juan Pérez was admitted" or "glucose 95 mg/dL". FHIR is the modern JSON one used by apps, portals and newer systems.

This is a translator between the two that also reviews the translation and explains errors in human language. It's not just another FHIR CRUD: it's the validated translation layer an agent needs so it doesn't have to talk directly to a raw FHIR server. It does three things:

• Translates HL7 v2 → FHIR (and the reverse, in future phases).

• Validates against profiles (US Core): that a lab's category isn't missing, that the patient's name is present…

• Explains what failed and where — "the required PV1 segment for an admission is missing" — without opening the spec.

The moat isn't the MCP protocol, it's the mapping knowledge: instead of rules hidden in the code, it uses declarative maps (maps/, readable and versionable YAML) of the form "message PID-5 → Patient's name". Auditable, correctable translation without touching code.

Related MCP server: Healthcare FHIR MCP Server

Tools

Maps in v0.1: ADT^A01, ORU^R01, ORM^O01 → FHIR R4 (see maps/). Non-obvious mappings are marked TODO(mapeo) and are not guessed.

Note: the server's human-readable messages (message, humanMessage, hint) are currently emitted in Spanish. The examples below are translated for readability.

Call → result (one per tool)

Each tool is invoked via tools/call with these arguments. Output is abbreviated; the full curl and more cases (malformed, edge) are in USAGE.md.

// arguments
{ "message": "MSH|^~\\&|LAB|H|EMR|H|20260102||ORU^R01|MSG1|P|2.5\rPID|1||123456^^^H^MR||DOE^JOHN||19800101|M" }
// → result
{ "ast": {
  "encoding": { "field":"|","component":"^","repetition":"~","escape":"\\","subcomponent":"&" },
  "segments": [ /* MSH, PID → fields → components → subcomponents */ ]
} }
// message not starting with MSH → isError: { "error": { "code":"INVALID_HEADER", "location":"MSH" } }

// arguments
{ "message": "MSH|...|ORU^R01|...\rPID|...\rOBR|1||1|1554-5^GLUCOSE^LN\rOBX|1|NM|1554-5^GLUCOSE^LN||95|mg/dL|70-105|N|||F" }
// → result
{ "bundle": { "resourceType":"Bundle", "entry":[ /* Patient · Observation · DiagnosticReport */ ] },
  "validation": { "issues": [], "explained": [] } }        // clean if it conforms to US Core

// arguments: an ADT^A01 with no PV1 and no name
{ "kind": "hl7v2", "payload": "MSH|...|ADT^A01|...\rEVN|A01|20260101\rPID|1||123456^^^H^MR" }
// → result
{ "issues": [
  { "severity":"error", "code":"MISSING_SEGMENT", "location":"PV1",  "message":"Falta el segmento requerido PV1 para ADT^A01." },
  { "severity":"error", "code":"MISSING_FIELD",   "location":"PID-5","message":"Falta el campo requerido PID-5 para ADT^A01." }
] }

// arguments
{ "issue": { "severity":"information", "code":"CODED", "location":"OBX-11", "message":"OBX-11 tiene el valor 'F'." } }
// → result
{ "humanMessage": "OBX-11 tiene el valor 'F'. El valor 'F' significa \"Final\" (tabla HL7 0085).",
  "location": "OBX-11 (Observation result status)",
  "hint": "Revisa el mensaje de origen contra la especificación del perfil." }

Try it (Claude Code)

This is an MCP server, so the natural way to use it is from an MCP client. In Claude Code you register it once with claude mcp add and then just ask in plain language — Claude picks the tool and fills the arguments for you. No HTTP, no ports, no curl.

1. Register it as a stdio server. tsx runs the TypeScript source directly — no build step, nothing to go stale:

npm ci
claude mcp add hl7-bridge -- npx tsx "$(pwd)/src/server/index.ts"

Prefer a compiled binary? npm run build then register node "$(pwd)/dist/server/index.js" instead — but rebuild after every source change.

2. Verify with claude mcp list, and inside Claude Code with /mcp (you should see the four hl7-bridge tools). To remove it later: claude mcp remove hl7-bridge.

3. Ask in natural language. Paste a message and let Claude call map_v2_to_fhir:

Map this HL7 v2 lab result to FHIR and tell me if it conforms to US Core: MSH|^~\&|LAB|H|EMR|H|20260102||ORU^R01|1|P|2.5 PID|1||123456^^^H^MR||DOE^JOHN||19800101|M OBR|1||1|1554-5^GLUCOSE^LN OBX|1|NM|1554-5^GLUCOSE^LN||95|mg/dL|70-105|N|||F

You get a Bundle with Patient · Observation · DiagnosticReport and clean validation ("issues": []). Observation.category = laboratory (which US Core requires) is populated as a deliberate constant documented in the map — HL7 v2 has no field that carries it and an ORU^R01 is always laboratory —, not a guessed value.

The value is in what it warns about. Now drop the trailing M (PID-8, sex) from that PID segment — ...||19800101|M → ...||19800101|. Because gender does come from a message field, its absence is real debt, and validation reports it with an exact location and a human explanation:

"issues": [
  { "severity":"error", "code":"PROFILE_REQUIRED", "location":"Patient.gender",
    "message":"US Core Patient requiere gender." }
],
"explained": [
  { "humanMessage":"US Core Patient requiere gender.", "location":"Patient.gender",
    "hint":"El perfil FHIR exige este elemento (must-support). Ajusta el mapa o el mensaje de origen para poblarlo." }
]

The difference with category is one of origin: gender has a v2 field (PID-8) that was left empty; category is a constant with no field. The full test set for all 4 tools (valid, malformed, edge cases) is in USAGE.md.

Not using Claude Code? To drive the server over HTTP from another system (or raw curl), see the HTTP transport, protocol and per-tool calls in USAGE.md.

Why use it vs. letting the agent translate directly

An LLM can approximate HL7 v2 → FHIR on its own. The value here isn't the conversion — it's that the conversion is repeatable, auditable, and refuses to guess.

The gender case above is the thesis: it flags real debt (empty PID-8) with an exact location, and does not flag the deliberate category constant. An LLM alone would likely invent a gender or stay silent.

Where it doesn't add much: coverage is narrow today (R4 only; ADT^A01, ORU^R01, ORM^O01, OUL^R22 partial — outside those you get a clean MAP_NOT_FOUND); validation is minimal US Core, not the full IG; and it's still not a clinical safety net — output requires human validation. For a one-off, throwaway translation where repeatability and correctness don't matter, the plain LLM is faster.

Bottom line: use it when the output feeds a real system and a wrong-but-plausible Bundle is worse than a loud failure. For casual exploration, it may be overhead you don't need.

Usage

npm ci && npm test              # + npm run typecheck / lint / test:coverage
npm run build && npm start      # stdio server for local MCP clients (Claude Code, Claude Desktop)

Full setup, testing and deployment steps are in USAGE.md: the HTTP transport (POST /mcp, for hosting or driving the server from another system), the JSON-RPC protocol, a curl call per tool, the complete test set, and Render deployment.

Design principles

• PHI-safe by default — the repo never contains real PHI; logs redact PID/NK1/GT1.

• Narrow tools — each tool has typed input/output, not a "do whatever you want".

• Determinism and explainability — every error carries structure + what and where in human language.

• Fail loudly — a malformed message yields a structured error, never a silent partial result.

• Not a medical device — no clinical decisions without human validation.

Stack and structure

TypeScript (Node ≥ 20) strict, official MCP SDK (@modelcontextprotocol/sdk), fhirpath.js

• @types/fhir, Vitest. Typed errors (Hl7BridgeError with code, location, humanMessage).

/src/{server,parser,mapper,validator,errors}   # MCP · HL7 v2 · declarative mapping · FHIR profiles · errors
/maps                                          # declarative YAML maps (ADT, ORU, ORM…)
/test/fixtures                                 # synthetic messages + expected outputs

Detail in context/ARCHITECTURE.md (components, I/O contracts, map format) and context/PRD.md.

References

Mapping and validation decisions are grounded in these authoritative sources, not guessed:

• HL7 v2.5.1 Chapter 7 — Observation Reporting — message structures (ORU, OUL) and segment optionality.

• HL7 Version 2 to FHIR Implementation Guide — segment/datatype ConceptMaps, e.g. SPM → Specimen.

• HL7/v2-to-fhir repository — source .fsh/CSV mappings (order-control, patient-class, report-status tables used by transforms).

• US Core Implementation Guide — Patient/Observation profile invariants.

• FHIR R4 specification — target resource model.

License

Apache-2.0 at the core (parser, mapper, validator, MCP tools). See LICENSE.