Services are brewing @ HL7 v3 2.0

During the last few HL7 Work Group Meetings I noticed something is brewing. Specifically there are a lot of discussions on the Services (SOA) paradigm. At the last WGM in Kyoto (may 2009) someone even said "Messaging is dead, long live messaging". Originally HL7 was focused on messages and documents. The current Service idea synapse was not firing yet. The current state of technology has changed enormously since then. Most of the current ISVs are moving toward Services, even in healthcare IT. But where is HL7 in this? HL7 v3 is a perfect Common Information Model for an SOA! But HL7 v3 needs to accept and embrace the WS-* standards. The Architecture Review Board Workgroup of HL7 is working on this. They are creating the Service Aware Enterprise Architecture Framework (SAEAF) which will take HL7 v3 into the Services era.

See also: Joint OMG/HL7 Project.

XMI, UML, EMF

I was trying to figure out the relationship between XMI, UML, EMF and Enterprise Architect (EA) XMI export. How was it possible that Eclipse was unable to read an EA UML XMI export. Now I know. EMF Ecore uses XMI to store the model. EA uses XMI to store the UML. The UML XMI is something completely different than Ecore XMI. The picture made it all clearer for me. If I want Eclipse to read the UML models from EA, I need the UML2 plugin from the Eclipse Modeling Framework. XMI and UML XMI are from OMG and Ecore is from Eclipse. UML2 is an implementation of UML XMI.

Clinician Desktop - New Software Paradigm?

I often ask myself the question if it is the time for a new kind of software for healthcare. America and others are investigating if Open Source software is an option for EHR Systems. I think the question should be different.
In the Netherlands hospitals are doubting if they should develop their own software or if they should buy a complete solution like McKesson Horizon, Alert, Epic, iSoft Lorenzo, Microsoft Amalga or Siemens Sorian.
They should not be looking for a complete EHR system in the commercial nor the open source space. They should ask/look for framework software that delivers all the basic functionality that healthcare providers need. They should not be forced in processes that happen to be implemented in the software. The software should support their own processes and way of work. The software should be flexible and help them.
I think you will always be developing your own solutions, so you need more than just a programming language or framework like Java or .Net. You will need a healthcare framework that understands the basis healthcare information concepts like Detailed Clinical Models, Care Pathways, Clinical Research Queries, etc.
It should be a Clinician Desktop.

Yes I Can ... CDA R2!

At the HL7 Work Group Meeting in Orlando, FL January 15, 2009 I did the CDA R2 exam and now I may call myself a "Certified CDA R2 Specialist" (the list)!
It is a confirmation that I know CDA R2. The Monday after the WGM I got a mail telling me I had passed the exam. And 2 weeks later, just as I was told, I received the certificate and the pin. I think HL7 does a good job on this.
Some may think a certificate is not saying much, but I really think the exam tests your knowledge to use the CDA R2 and not just that you can learn well. Furthermore it is not just a test of CDA, but also of the RIM and interpreting the DMIM diagrams.
Just to be sure I was prepared I also followed the excellent CDA Advanced tutorial by Bob Dolin and later the CCD tutorial. In my hospital I created a CDA Implementation Guide for archiving and sending clinical documents. At the moment we are working on a SemanticSOA which uses something similar to the CDA R3 Model as it's Common Information Model. See also this great blog entry about the future roadmap of CDA R3/CCD by Rene Spronk.

HL7 Standaardisatiedag 10-12-2008 RIMBAA

Het was weer een mooie dag. Veel gepraat en veel herkenning. En natuurlijk liepen de presentaties weer allemaal uit ;-) Bij de pizza party achteraf weer hele goede discussies gehad over vooral Detailed Clinical Models. Daar gaan we meer over horen!

2008 12 10 HL7 RIMBAA

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ESB is NOT a product

The most common mistake with an Enterprise Service Bus is thinking it is a product. This, of cource, is not true. ESB is a pattern witch is a combination of capabilities. Some vendors do sell a product that has all the capabilities implemented. Like with an SOA... you cannot buy an ESB, you have to think ESB.
Also see the great presentation The Role of the Enterprise Service Bus by Mark Richards.

Access to Healthcare Records

I got the Microsoft Architecture Journal #16 in the post and found a great article in there about 'Federated Identity and Healthcare'. It also talks about the tight security Austria knows and the Netherlands is talking about.
I think they make it to much a hassle to get to the patients information. I personally don't care what healthcare professional accesses my health records. I just want them to make be better and I know that they need information about my medical history to do so.
The only restriction for me is that I want to see who did access my health records and when. Even in case of research they may use my health records as long as it is guaranteed to be anonymized.