Interoperability and Integrations with Columna Flow

How Columna Flow integrates

Hospital IT environments are complex. You have an EMR, asset management systems, various tracking technologies, building management platforms, and multiple logistics systems. Each one valuable on its own – but they do not share data.

Columna Flow works differently. Rather than forcing you to replace existing systems, it connects them through a shared integration layer called the IoT Platform.

The IoT Platform foundation

Your tracking hardware (Wi-Fi positioning, Bluetooth tags, RFID readers) generates raw location events. Your clinical applications need meaningful location and asset information. The IoT Platform sits in the middle, collecting events from any tracking technology, enriching them with context from your location and equipment databases, and distributing that information to every system that needs it through standard interfaces. This means your existing hardware keeps working, your systems get the data they need, and you're not locked into any single vendor's technology.

Clinical information systems

How the integration works

When clinical applications and your Electronic Medical Record connect to Columna Flow through HL7 FHIR or ADT feeds, location data appears directly in clinical workflows. No separate systems, no switching screens.

Clinicians often find themselves caught up in time-consuming and repetitive EMR responsibilities, such as checking the status of test results, finding local care team members, managing beds, and calling for service personnel. Many of these tasks can be easily done from a mobile device when systems are connected.

What this enables:

• Staff location visibility at ward level, with direct messaging

• Equipment and bed availability without opening another app

• Service task requests that route automatically to the right person

• Real-time radiology appointment and transport tracking

• Instrument tracking for sterile equipment management

Hospital logistics and supply chain

How the integration works

Columna Flow connects nurse call systems, automated guided vehicles, and task management into a unified workflow. Location triggers and system status updates route tasks automatically based on request type.

About half your bed calls need nursing care. The other half – room cleaning, meal delivery, equipment pickup – could be handled by support staff. But nurse call systems route everything to nurses, who then have to call someone else, who then has to find the right location.

What this enables

• Non-clinical nurse calls route to support staff, not nurses

• Automated vehicles trigger delivery notifications when they reach each ward

• Room status changes automatically create housekeeping tasks

• Catering systems coordinate meal delivery with patient location

Asset and building management

How the integration works

Columna Flow combines Building Information Management (BIM) data with real-time asset tracking. Your asset management system becomes a shared source of truth that connects procurement, facilities, and operations.

Combining building information and asset tracking enables care staff and nurses to quickly find clinical equipment locations, reducing wasted time looking for missing equipment. Administrative staff can manage the medical equipment lifecycle from their asset management systems while connecting assets to hospital locations.

What this enables:

• Real-time equipment tracking visible across all hospital systems

• Integration with building designs from Revit and other BIM tools

• Procurement orders include specific delivery locations with routing information

• Standardised location addressing using GS1 international standards

Real-time locating systems (RTLS)

How the integration works

Columna Flow collects location data from any tracking technology – Wi-Fi positioning, Bluetooth Low Energy, RFID, Ultra-Wideband. Your user-facing systems (Search & Find, Wayfinding, Task Management) see equipment from all tracking sources through standard interfaces.

The platform's technology-agnostic architecture means you are not locked into a single tracking vendor. Whether you use Wi-Fi, BLE, RFID, UWB, or multiple technologies simultaneously, Columna Flow collects location events from any system and distributes that data to your user applications.

What this enables

• Mix different tracking technologies in different areas without losing visibility

• Switch tracking vendors without changing your user-facing systems

• Add new tracking capabilities through pre-built connectors

• Search for equipment regardless of which technology tracks it

Why we use open standards for integration

Healthcare IT often works through vendor-specific ecosystems. When you invest in one company's EMR, you typically work within their network of approved partners for additional capabilities. Adding equipment tracking or switching vendors later can mean significant integration work or lengthy migration projects.

We take a different approach.

Our approach:

Columna Flow uses internationally recognised standards that work across vendors and countries:

What this means practically:

• Switch vendors without rebuilding integrations (standards do not belong to any company)

• Add new technology through pre-built connectors (not custom development every time)

• Integrate faster and cheaper (standard interfaces reduce implementation time)

• Protect your investment (your systems keep working even if you change vendors)

The same standards that let you track packages globally now work for tracking equipment across your hospital. And just like shipping works with any carrier using standard tracking codes, your systems work with any vendor supporting standard interfaces.

Want the complete API documentation?

Columna Flow is part of our open ecosystem, which supports a large variety og integrations and adaptors.

The open APIs for the Columna product suite - Columna Cura, Columna CIS, and Columna Flow - are based on international standards with interoperability with existing IT solutions in regional, municipal, and private care in mind. This enables efficient integration and shortens the development time, which ultimately increases the commercial potential of innovative projects.

Multi-site healthcare organisations use this as their master location database, standardising how location data is structured and shared across all facilities.

Technology designed for healthcare: The platform runs on infrastructure designed for mission-critical environments where reliability is not optional – integrated ecosystems, smart technologies that support clinical decisions, and operational technologies ensuring secure, scalable operation.