Your task
System A sends a measured value, unit, observation time, status and product version to System B. The receiver sees four records: complete, no observation, delayed and corrected. Use the examples in the connected-health worksheet.
Suggested time: 30–40 minutes. No enrolment, fee or membership is required.
Step 1 — check the dictionary
For every field, record meaning, valid values, unit, time zone, source, version and the representation of absence. Mark any term the receiver would otherwise have to infer.
Step 2 — write acceptance rules
Use the connected-health handover worksheet to decide which records System B accepts, holds or rejects. State what the user sees and whether an earlier record remains visible.
Step 3 — assign investigation
For a duplicate, unknown schema version and correction, identify which system detects the state, which record is authoritative, who investigates and what evidence closes the issue.
Worked answer
A missing value is not zero. A delayed record keeps its observation time and may need a separate receipt status. A corrected record retains a link to the prior record so the receiver can update without double counting. An unknown schema version should not be silently interpreted as a familiar one.
The sender owns the meaning it publishes; the receiver owns the rules by which it accepts and uses the record. The handover needs an agreed route for resolving the boundary between them.
Self-check
- Can the receiver distinguish absence, failure and delay?
- Are observation, receipt and correction times unambiguous?
- Is the product and schema version attached to the record?
- Is the authoritative record defined?
- Does each failure state have an investigation owner and user-facing result?