Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
517359 International Journal of Medical Informatics 2007 7 Pages PDF
Abstract

A seamless support of information flow for increasingly distributed healthcare processes requires to integrate heterogeneous IT systems into a comprehensive distributed information system. Different standards contribute to ease this integration. In a research project focussing on the development of a reference architecture for inter-institutional health information systems, we identified concurring standards currently in use. We therefore categorized these integration standards by distinguishing between technical and semantic integration on the one hand, and data and functional integration on the other hand. In addition, standards for semantic integration are roughly categorized according to their scope. By placing standards into a corresponding matrix a “semantic gap” is revealed, which cannot be covered by standards as it contains volatile medical concepts. As a conclusion, it is recommended to conceptually consider the necessity of system evolution in system architectures and also in future integration standards.

Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Computer Science Computer Science Applications
Authors
, , ,