Patient identification

PID contains core patient demographics - name, date of birth, sex, address, phone numbers, and identifiers like MRN and SSN. It appears in virtually every HL7v2 message type.

Configure an MLLP channel and access the PID segment from the parsed message:

msg = HL7Message.parse(raw_data)
name = msg.pid.patient_name
dob = msg.pid.date_time_of_birth
mrn = msg.pid.patient_identifier_list

Use semantic Python names instead of positional notation:

# Instead of PID.5, use:
pid.patient_name

# Subcomponents work too:
pid.patient_name.family_name
pid.patient_name.given_name

# Instead of PID.7, use:
pid.date_time_of_birth

PID.3 (patient_identifier_list) is a repeating field. Access individual identifiers by index or iterate:

from zato.hl7v2.v2_9 import PID, CX

pid = PID()
pid.patient_identifier_list = [
    CX(),
    CX(),
]
pid.patient_identifier_list.id_number = 'MRN-78432'
pid.patient_identifier_list[1].id_number = 'SSN-555667788'

for ident in pid.patient_identifier_list:
    print(ident.id_number)

Yes, you can map PID fields to a FHIR Patient resource:

from zato.fhir.r4_0_1 import Patient, HumanName

hn = HumanName()
hn.family = pid.patient_name.family_name
hn.given = [pid.patient_name.given_name]

patient = Patient()
patient.name = [hn]
patient.birthDate = pid.date_time_of_birth

Zato connects to any system that speaks HL7v2 over MLLP or FHIR over REST. This includes Epic, Cerner, Meditech, Allscripts, and other EHR platforms.

Yes, Zato has built-in MLLP support for sending and receiving HL7v2 messages. MLLP channels handle the framing protocol automatically.

Zato supports HL7 v2.9, which is backward compatible with earlier versions including v2.3, v2.5, and v2.7. Standard segments and datatypes are available as typed Python classes.

Yes. Zato handles both HL7v2 and FHIR natively, so you can parse v2 messages and build FHIR resources with IG-specific extensions in the same service. Typed Python classes are available for both protocols, including extensions from US Core, UK Core, Da Vinci, and other Implementation Guides.