Alvin,
As you implied, targeting the level of interoperability needed/desired is
indeed the key first step. Having grown up in DoD, I use their "Levels of
Information Systems Interoperability (LISI)" as a frame of reference for
discussions on the subject. Data exchange is just the first level (Level I
of four). Sometimes that is all that is necessary. When you have only 2 or
3 systems within an enterprise, simple data exchange via point-to-point
interfaces can be affordable/manageable. In a healthcare enterprise of any
size, however, the harsh reality of the equation I = S(S-1)/2, where I =
interfaces and S = systems comes slamming home to the maintenance budget.
Organizations have had it with being held as "maintenance hostages;" that
old gig is over. That's one among many reasons why enterprises are
migrating toward the Common Object Request Broker Architecture. They get
the long-term maintenance economy of one interface per system, the long-term
economy of common services across multiple systems, and the delta
functionality (see "Marketplace Modeling" by Benchmarking Partners) realized
through higher levels of interoperability.
I'll send you the Marketplace Modeling and LISI reference material side bar;
too big to attach here.
Regards,
Scott
-----Original Message-----
From: Alvin B. Marcelo [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2000 4:21 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Focusing on interoperability
It has been silent. But I know the projects have been surging on...
Question:
It was mentioned that most of the open source projects, being generated
from ground up, have the unique capability to integrate interoperability
right at the start.
But has the alliance agreed on what level of interoperability this would be?
So far the interoperability solutions that have been presented were:
CORBA
CORBAmed
HL7
CEN
GEHR
Are all these players on the same field? meaning: can I proceed with my EMR
project, with my own database, with my own programming language, and with
my own operating system, and _still_ be interoperable with the other open
source projects?
Which of the above can give me that flexibility?
Shouldn't we settle this question right now or else go the way of the
current proprietary systems?
Maybe we're not looking for the best (maybe it isn't there). But we need
something common to hold on.
alvin
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
Alvin B. Marcelo, M.D.
National Library of Medicine, B1N30
Office of High Performance Computing and Communications
Bethesda, Maryland 20894
Voice: 301-435-3278
Fax: 301-402-4080
eFax: 603-452-3657
Work: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Home: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
PGP keyID: 0x6E9941D1
PGP server: http://www.keyserver.net
