Message Queue
A middleware pattern that decouples producers and consumers of healthcare messages, providing buffering, ordering, and delivery guarantees.
Message queues (RabbitMQ, AWS SQS, Azure Service Bus, Kafka) are increasingly used alongside or behind interface engines. They decouple the source system from consumers, buffer during downtime, and enable fan-out to multiple subscribers. In healthcare, queues help handle bursty ADT feeds, provide replay capability for failed deliveries, and enable event-driven architectures. The key design decision is whether to use a queue (point-to-point) or a topic/stream (pub-sub).
FAQ
- Should I put a message queue in front of my integration engine?
- It depends on volume and reliability requirements. A queue adds buffering and delivery guarantees but also complexity. For low-volume interfaces, the engine's built-in retry is often sufficient.