OnCore Interface User Guide (SPARCRequest v3.7.0)

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SPARCRequest and OnCore Interface Information

A fully integrated interface between SPARCRequest and Epic has been developed under the promotion of the Medical University of South Carolina. Roll-out with Epic enterprise went live in July 2014.

The purpose of SPARCRequest having an Electronic Health Record (EHR) Interface with Epic (as shown in Figure 1):

• Easier creation of research protocol and billing calendar outside Epic

• Uniform research pricing and improved billing compliance

• Reduce manual and duplicative data entry

• Improve data consistency across systems

• Comprehensive reporting

• Enhance communication across providers

• User/research provider management

Figure 1 Functionality and Overlap between SPARCRequest and Epic

Information pushed from SPARCRequest to Epic mainly comes from the Study Information and Authorized Users sections (see Figure 2) and the study calendar section (see Figure 3) of SPARCRequest, which helps build the following pieces in Epic:      

• Research study administrative (RSH) record

• Study timeline

• Study staff

• Funding source identification

• Participant Privacy Protections

Figure 2

Figure 3

Specific terms in SPARCRequest that match with the ones in Epic are listed below.

*Principal investigator, Other providers, and Nurses need to have the corresponding “provider’s record” if he/she has been selected to have EMR access.

Protocols (records) that are “Submitted” in SPARCRequest by users are sent to an Epic Queue in SPARCRequest;

If the Epic queue configuration is turned on, the protocols that  are interfaced to Epic are sent automatically in a batch mode on daily basis; If the Epic queue configuration is turned off, the protocols are queued and have to be pushed manually by system identified users.

Authorized users can view, send or delete the protocols in the SPARC/Epic queue with the functions described below.

Epic Queue Function (from SPARCDashboard)

• In SPARCDashboard, authorized service providers are able to see the “Epic Queue” button (Figure 4), which will allow them to check what studies are in the process of being pushed to Epic.

Figure 4

Epic Queue Page

• Once the user clicks the "Epic Queue" button, there are 3 tabs on the page displayed: Current, Past, and Protocol Update tabs.

• Figure 5 shows the "Current" tab, where the current queued protocols are listed and waiting to be pushed to Epic. These queued protocols can be pushed or deleted from the queue, and there are URLs linking back to the individual protocols.

Figure 5

• When adding or editing authorized users on studies chosen to be pushed to Epic, there is an "Epic EMR Access" choice that authorizes whether a user should have access to Epic (Figure 6). This field is interfaced with Epic real-time, and only allows the choice of "Yes" when the user has a valid EMP record in Epic.  

Figure 6

• When user rights have been updated for a protocol that have already been pushed to Epic successfully before, that protocol information message will automatically be queued and sent to Epic on the same day at 5 pm. These type of protocols are listed on the "Protocol Update" tab, with detailed information and URL linking back.

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Figure 7

• Previously pushed protocols are listed in the "Past" tab, showing the detailed information about the previous Epic pushes that happened to the protocols, such as PI, last queued date, status, source of the push, and by whom.

• There are three types of Epic pushes: Overlord Push, Protocol Update and Admin Push. The Overlord Push is push from the Epic Queue page, Admin Push are the ones done from SPARCDashboard Admin Edit section, and Protocol Update are the automatic protocol information update pushes triggered by user updates (Figure 8).

Figure 8

• On the "Past" tab, users can also attach notes to a Epic push with corresponding information if desired (Figure 9). 

Figure 9

Technical Specs

• Format: Health Level Seven (HL7) messaging, based on an XML encoding

• Protocol: Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)

• The API can be used for other Electronic Health Record (EHR) Systems as a template

• An example SOAP message can be found here: https://github.com/sparc-request/sparc-request/wiki/Epic-XML-example

• For more details, please check the links below to the GitHub codes: https://github.com/sparc-request/sparc-request/blob/master/lib/epic_interface.rb