Your First HL7 Channel in 5 Minutes

You want to try out Brio-IO but have no appetite for pages of setup documentation? This tutorial takes you from a bare Docker host to a received lab HL7 message in under five minutes.

1. Start Brio-IO

A single Docker command is all it takes to get going:

docker run -d \
  --name brio \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -p 9090:9090 \
  -e BRIO_ADMIN_PASSWORD=admin123 \
  brio/brio-server:latest

• Port 8080 is the web UI.
• Port 9090 is the MLLP Listener for our first channel.

2. Log In

Open http://localhost:8080 and log in:

• Username: admin
• Password: admin123

After logging in you’ll see the empty dashboard. Let’s change that.

3. Create a Connector

Click “New Channel” in the top right and select:

• Source connector: MLLP Listener
• Port: 9090
• Protocol: HL7v2
• Destination connector: File Writer
• Path: /data/inbox

Save. Deploy. Done.

4. Send a Test Message

Brio-IO comes with a built-in Message Generator. In the channel, click “Send test message”, choose an ORU^R01 template and hit Send.

You should immediately see a successful message in the dashboard. The container volume now holds a file with the lab result.

5. What’s Next?

• Add a transformation: Convert the HL7 message into FHIR.
• Set a filter: Process only messages with specific OBX codes.
• Configure an alert: Get an email when a channel goes down.

The documentation has a dedicated guide for every topic.

Have fun!