Odd Behavior in NIST ELR Validation Tool

[sheryl...@nist.gov]

This issue was reported to NIST:

When the tester uploads an HL7 ELR message containing the Mu symbol (μ) using the Browse Message button, the NIST ELR tool replaces μ with a wingding. When they copy and paste the body of the HL7 ELR message into the Message Content Window, μ displays correctly.

NIST Analysis:

• Testers have two options they can use to avoid the wingding showing up in their ELR messages in the NIST ELR Tool the Message Content Window:

1. Use either “ug” or “mcg” to indicate “microgram” in the ELR messages
2. Do not use the Browse Message button if the µ symbol is used to indicate “microgram” in the ELR messages; copy/paste the messages into the Message Content Window instead (if the app the tester uses to open their file works for them and does not cause the wingding to display

• The ELR Tool uses the old version of the testing tool architecture/framework, and NIST does not intend to update this tool anymore unless something is fundamentally broken (NIST doesn’t consider this issue to fall into that category, and there are viable workarounds)

 Background Information:

• Due to the symbol µ being typographically unavailable much of the time (i.e., one cannot type it on a keyboard), other versions were devised; two of these are u and mc, which are now widely used in its place. “u” is used to represent “micro” in the UCUM Value Set in the NIST ELR Test Tool