All, I believe that there has been huge growth in the awareness around the world of openEHR and especially archetypes over the past two years.
The keyword in that sentence is 'awareness'. In many places there is a pretty serious lack of understanding. Tom Beale, et.al. has done a wonderful job over the years of creating AND maintaining outstanding documentation for the Foundation. This is a first for many open source/open content projects. How can we the community, support the Foundation better so the Foundation can support us better? [Caution random thoughts ahead] At an appropriate time, conferences are very beneficial in community and awareness building. [5-6 years out for an openEHR conference?] Meetings at other related conferences are always good. I understand that there were a significant number at MedInfo this year [I couldn't be there :-< ]. This is something that should be in the planning. Are there papers to be presented? Where will they be submitted? BoF meetings. How can we come together under the auspices of the Foundation to build internal support and support each other? [actually I understand this is already being worked on] I'd love to have discussion on these and other points. Remember; "a rising tide floats all boats" [I have no idea who said that but it sounds cool so I repeat it often]. :-) A story about what (partially) prompted this email: I was invited to give a presentation to a Standards working group on Archetypes. Now; I am not an "Archetypes" expert by any means. Heck, I'm not even a clinician. But I do understand the Reference Model and I understand two-level modeling. Besides, I've never been to Kenya before. :-) So I accepted. I was also asked to present a comparison between OpenMRS "Concepts" and archetypes. Well, I ass-u-me-d that the people that had invited me saw some similarities between them and wanted some clarification and a suggestion as to how the two might be used together. After several weeks of just thinking about a presentation and asking a question here and there. I realized that the conference in next and maybe I should really understand OpenMRS "Concepts". [usually a good idea at this point]. BTW: The panel we are in together was labeled "Vocabulary Management". I had sent an email a few weeks ago suggesting it should be called "Knowledge Management" if we were presenting "Archetypes" and "Concepts". No answer. On Wednesday (yes only 5 days before traveling to the conference) I started engaging the OpenMRS community with serious questions (I had been lurking for weeks). Well, one question led to two and two to four (you get the idea) and pretty soon I think I shut down OpenMRS development progress because everyone was busy answering my questions (sorry but thanks, OpenMRS guys). After my re-education and a basic "aaaaaHHHHHHaaaaaa" I realized that "Concepts" and "Archetypes" are not even close in similarity! Basically, "Concepts" are a local vocabulary used to improve computability to patient responses in a typical EAV data model. My point is [may be you haven't done this] that it is too easy sometimes to get so close to something that you do not understand or appreciate the view point of others. I began to make assumptions. I almost lost an opportunity to present the wonderful virtues of openEHR and two-level modeling because of it. I am looking forward to next week and I really do appreciate my hosts asking me to attend. In preparing the media for the conference they asked for presentations as well as any background documentation. I included (with my presentation) the openEHR overview, the archetype principles document (after checking the license) and a couple of archetypes in ADL and HTML. I believe (hope) that people that would not normally go tot he website to look for these will at least browse them on the conference media. I also think that it is very important for us to point out that while the ideal is a longitudinal, future proof health record. The openEHR specifications (applications) can deliver independent clinical applications that can share information. Lets say that a health authority wants to review TB registries, Malaria registries and HIV registries. They can do that with the same application using the specific archetypes from each area. No other model can accomplish that. So, my point is ... we as a community need to promote and EDUCATE at every opportunity, the concepts of openEHR, archetypes and the Foundation so that we can encouragin funders to recognize the Foundation needs and so that the Foundation can grow to support us. DISCLAIMER: I am not a member of the openEHR Foundation Board of Directors nor do I have any financial stake in the Foundation. I do however believe that this is the best opportunity that the world has (so far) to achieve longitudinal, interoperable, computable health information systems. Your comments are encouraged, Tim -- Timothy Cook, MSc Health Informatics Research & Development Services LinkedIn Profile:http://www.linkedin.com/in/timothywaynecook
