Frequently Asked Question

A bundle is a collection of things or a quantity of material tied up or wrappped together to form one package for more convenient handling. In computer world, the bundeling of data is the process of merging them into a single optimized file.

In the context of data exchange, a document (like the discharge summary, an examination report, the SUMEHR, ...) is a type of bundle. A document is a "static" information bundle. Once generated, the information contained in this version of the document will not change. If one wants to update the information, he/she will need to generate a new version of the document.

A transaction, like for example the electronic exchange of a group of laboratory result Observations representing the results of a blood analyse (electronic lab report), is a dynamic information bundle. Several healthcare professionals can work at the same time on a transaction bundle. In our example, each person responsible for one lab test perfomred on the blood sample, is able to update the information of his/her part of the bundle in a dynamic way, independently of the rest of the bundle, while the person querying the bundle will always view the latest version of all the test data.