CIMI group goes with openEHR archetypes & UML profile

14/12/2011

The Clinical Information Modelling Initiative (CIMI) group led by Dr Stan Huff (Intermountain Health, Utah) met here in London 29 Nov – 1 Dec to make a final decision on formalism, from the two remaining – openEHR archetypes and various forms of UML (previous posts on CIMI: DCMs & RM, on formalisms). Instead of simply choosing one, the group made a more strategic choice of designating openEHR ADL/AOM 1.5 as the core formalism, with a corresponding profile of UML being developed to enable the more numerous UML-based developers (e.g. VA, NHS etc) to use archetypes within their UML toolchains.

Here is the public announcement resulting from this meeting.

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DCM – Data Types and Reference Model considerations

11/09/2011

Following the DCM meeting convened by Dr Stan Huff (Intermountain Healthcare) in Washington in July, reported in an earlier blog post, there is a further meeting this week in San Diego, which will discuss the issues of ‘data types’ and ‘reference models’ for the purpose of DCM (detailed clinical models).

I created two slideshows to explain my views on these matters (DCM_and_data_types and DCM_and_reference_model [both PDF]). Below is an extract of my arguments in these slideshows, based on experience, for adopting a particular approach to data types and reference model within the stated mission the DCM forum, which is to find formalism and attendant models in which to express universally shareable detailed clinical models. Naturally, my view on ‘the answer’ to that question is ‘openEHR (ADL/AOM) archetypes, templates and terminology’, but what I am providing below is not an argument supporting that, but one proposing how to proceed with respect to the ‘underlying models’.
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Information models, DCMs and Archetypes

07/07/2011

I will be attending a ‘Fresh Look’ meeting in Washington next week. The idea is to make some progress on the topic of  ‘detailed clinical models’ (DCMs). Some of the goals include setting up a repository of DCMs, establishing governance, and defining a roadmap for tooling. Underlying all this is a huge list of formalisms and models, including OWL, UML, ADL, HL7 MIF, XSD, LRA, RMIMs, CDA templates, greenCDA and so on. Read the rest of this entry »


DCMs – can they look good AND be computable?

08/06/2011

Let’s talk about mindmaps and archetypes. Mindmaps seem to be fuzzy and friendly – we need them because they are incredibly efficient at transmitting information to humans. Archetypes seem über-mathematical, but we need them to do proper model-based computing.

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Detailed Clinical Models (DCMs) – some basic facts

03/06/2011

The New Zealand e-health programme architecture task-force has published its Working Interoperability Reference Architecture blueprint document. With respect to the document and the comments posted (I tried to post myself,  but the comment disappeared), it seems worth making a couple of points on DCMs, of whatever flavour. If a DCM is to be expressed in a way useful to building and managing health IT infrastructure, there are two possibilities. Read the rest of this entry »


The HL7 Null Flavor Debate – part 2

18/05/2011

Previous: HL7 null flavors part 1

Null flavors – Objection #3: ontological problems

The following table shows the current HL7v3 null flavor values. A full version of the table appears in Grahame Grieve’s blog post. Read the rest of this entry »


The HL7 Null Flavor Debate – part 1

18/05/2011

(With apologies to those who use international English and normally spell it as ‘flavour’; in this post, I will spell it properly in informal text, and in the US way when referring to the formal HL7 null flavour concept.)

Grahame Grieve has pointed out in a recent blog post that I am a major critic of HL7 ‘null flavours’. This is correct, but the reasons are probably misunderstood, so I will try to clarify here. Read the rest of this entry »


One information model to rule them all?

05/05/2011

One of the age-old debates in health informatics: can there be ‘one information model’ for shared clinical information? Some dream of a model to rule them all, uniting standards efforts, while others dismiss the idea as impossible or unrealistic. Obviously inside deployed health/hospital information (and all other – lab, GP, nursing, billing, PAS etc) products, there are private, differing information models. These do not concern us. Read the rest of this entry »


How could HL7 refresh?

01/05/2011

Continuing on from the basis established in the previous post, here I will say what I think HL7 could do to help here. My suggestions are as follows: Read the rest of this entry »


The crisis in e-health standards III – solutions

18/10/2009

Prev: The crisis in e-health standards IIa

Stakeholder Aspirations and Needs

Before going so far as to offer a solution to the e-health standards problem, I want to have a look at what we consider to be the requirements that such standards, and indeed health informatics in general is meant to address.

The most typically repeated aspirations I hear regularly from government e-health programmes (which are usually staffed by ‘believers’ in e-health) include the following: Read the rest of this entry »


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