This section details the use and specifications of the various proprietary file formats used for linking, importing, exporting and the general transfer of data between Clinical and other programs or modules

ADDRESS.IN

The ADDRESS.IN file is a format used to import specialists information into the Clinical Address book. For more information including a full specification of this format, refer to ADDRESS.IN.

Comma Delimited

Clinical provides for the importing of comma-delimited or CSV (comma-separated values) files. Files of this type are of plain text format and use a comma to delimit the fields in a record and a CR/LF (carriage return - line feed) to separate records. This means that each record must be on a separate line.

If you wish to include commas within the actual text (in the addresses field for example), you will need to place the information in quotes.

Example:

John, Smith, "22 Main St, Demotown", 1234

When importing into Clinical you will need to set the number and order of fields in the file. Clinical's Maintenance Utility provides a facility to do this.

DBF (dBase File)

Clinical provides import and export support for the dBase III (*.DBF) file format. This is a widely used format and is supported by most database programs. As per the CSV or Tab delimited files (refer above), you will need to set the number and order of fields when importing or exporting.

HL7

The HL7 format is one of two industry standard formats used for the transfer of Investigation results such as Pathology and Radiology. This format is used by many laboratories for pathology results transmissions. This is an Australian National Standard and copies are available from Standards Australia.

IMM.OUT

The IMM.OUT format is a pipe delimited '|' (ASCII character 124) format used by Clinical to send details of immunisations to the billing package. A standard format is used for all billing packages, with a separate format for Pracsoft. For more information including a full specification of this format, refer to IMM.OUT Format.

Patients.In

The PATIENTS.IN file uses a fixed length format called 'Generic ASCII v2' and is the standard for importing data into and linking with Clinical. There are a number of third party programs which include support for this format. For more information including a full specification of this format, refer to PATIENTS.IN File.

Patients.Out

The PATIENTS.OUT format is a fixed length format and was the standard export file format used by older versions of Clinical. Legacy support is still included for this file format although developers are encouraged to use the TRANSFER.OUT format (refer below) instead which provides better support for field length changes (which may result from program modifications). For more information including a full specification of this format, refer to PATIENTS.OUT Format.

Pipe Delimited

Files formatted in this way are similar to that described above (CSV), except a Pipe character '|' (ASCII character 124) is used to separate (delimit) each field in a record. Each record entry is in a single line terminated by a Carriage return/Line feed pair (ASCII 13 + ASCII 10).

PIT

The PIT format is one of two industry standard formats used for the transfer of Investigation results such as Pathology and Radiology. This format is used by Queensland Medical Laboratory (QML) and Drs Sullivan, Nicolaides and Partners (S&N) for pathology results transmissions. For more information including a full specification of this format, refer to PIT Format.

Tab Delimited

Files formatted in this way are similar to that described above (CSV) except a TAB character (ASCII character 9) is used to separate (delimit) each field in a record. When importing into Clinical you will need to set the number and order of fields in the file. Clinical's Maintenance Utility provides a facility to do this.

Transfer.Out

The TRANSFER.OUT format is a '|' (ASCII character 124) delimited format and is the standard export file format used by Clinical. For more information including a full specification of this format, refer to TRANSFER.OUT Format.

Visits.Out

The VISITS.OUT format is a '|' (ASCII character 124) delimited format and is used for transferring information relating to the Medicare items recorded during a consultation. This information can be used by Medical Director's own 'Consultation Viewer' utility or by third parties. For more information including a full specification of this format, refer to VISITS.OUT Format.