Mirth Connect is open source software that can accept, change, and forward information packets, called messages. Such packets might consist of anything from spreadsheet data, to medical messages, to emails. It is frequently used to send messages in a format called HL7, and it has some built-in understanding of HL7 messages to simplify work with such messages.
Written in Java, Mirth runs on any system capable of running a Java virtual machine, including Microsoft Windows, Apple's OS X, and Linux.
We're going to take a step-by-step approach, tackling some of Mirth's fundamentals before looking at how it handles HL7 messages. Even if you're an old hand at HL7, there are aspects of how Mirth dices and slices messages that can create boobytraps. The more you've seen Mirth under the hood, the less likely it is you'll fall into traps.
This book is not a reference tome, and I make no attempt to cover Mirth's capabilities in a comprehensive way. It is aimed at someone who knows the basics of programming, has been confronted by Mirth, and is trying to make sense of it. It won't make you an expert, but it may prevent you from wanting to kick your computer. Mirth is a large tool with a lot of areas; I'm hoping that this book will let you familiarize yourself with a few central things, without intimidating you. The goal is to get you ready to learn more on your own.
We assume you have downloaded Mirth and the Mirth user guide from https://www.mirthcorp.com or https://www.nextgen.com. (Or use the links below.) If you haven't done that yet, please do. Both downloads are free. Think of the User Guide as a reference, and use this as a tutorial. Because this is tutorial in nature, you'll get the most out of it if you work it from the beginning, rather than try to jump in someplace in the middle. Some topics which you might expect would have their own chapters are covered, instead, when they first become useful in the context of the tutorial.