You will be using the HL7 Simulator test tool to send data to your database.

To configure the HL7 Simulator:

• Open the HL7 Simulator application. (To access it, click Start, then Programs, iNTERFACEWARE, HL7 Analytical Tools and HL7 Simulator.)
• In the Host field, type localhost.
• In the Port field, type the port number that the Simulator is sending from. This is the port number you specified when configuring the LLP Listener source component.
• In the Message File field, specify the HL7 messages input file that the Simulator will send. This must be a text file that contains some A04 messages. There are some sample A04 messages in the Chameleon install directory.
• Check the Keep sending messages when ACK Received? option. This ensures that the next HL7 message is sent to the server as each ACK is received.
• Leave everything else as is, and click the Start button. The Simulator starts sending messages. You should see messages and ACKnowledgements appear in the simulator window. The messages are sent to Iguana, which responds with ACKnowledgements after the messages have been accepted by the incoming channel.
• Examine your database. The extracted data should appear in the Patient table.

Configuring the HL7 Simulator

You have now learned how to extract patient demographics information and put it into your database. The following sections will show you how to modify the VMD mapping file to handle other common situations.