On Thu, 2008-04-17 at 18:01 +0200, Gerard Freriks wrote: > > What about ASN.1 isn't that a good alternative?
This brings up a good point. ASN.1 (much like XML) is a communications protocol. These work well for flat message transactions where there is no need to be concerned with temporal or spatial context. This is not the case with healthcare information as a whole. There are exceptions such as a single order sent in a message format. This is (to my understanding) how HL7 v2.x grew out of EDI standards. On ASN.1 (as well as XSD) from an excellent tutorial on the subject at: http://asn1.elibel.tm.fr/introduction/index.htm "ASN.1 definition can be contrasted to the concept in ABNF of "valid syntax", or in XSD of a "valid document", where the focus is entirely on what are valid encodings of data, without concern with any meaning that might be attached to such encodings. That is, without any of the necessary semantic linkages." In the 1980's I created some and worked with many EDI message applications. These approaches work great for asynchronous, context-free DATA exchange. Thomas made a good point in file size as well. It wasn't only a concern 20 years ago. It remains so today and is a primary reason that EDI (esp. X12 in the US) remains a major message exchange format. There are many references available that describe EDI msgs. being 10% of the equivalent XML msgs. This adds up very quickly in time and space when you are talking about MILLIONS of transactions or BILLIONS of records. But, IMHO, the bottom line still remains the ability of ADL to represent information exchange as archetypes in a compact, semantically accurate message. If you study the temporal and spatial aspects of clinical information in the context of the idea that this information should live many years beyond the life of the patient in order to inform medicine for generations, then you can see where a little inconvenience now can create systems that are very valuable far into the future. Thanks for reading my rant. :-) Cheers, Tim -- Timothy Cook, MSc Health Informatics Research & Development Services LinkedIn Profile:http://www.linkedin.com/in/timothywaynecook Skype ID == timothy.cook ************************************************************** *You may get my Public GPG key from popular keyservers or * *from this link http://timothywayne.cook.googlepages.com/home* ************************************************************** -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 189 bytes Desc: This is a digitally signed message part URL: <http://lists.openehr.org/mailman/private/openehr-technical_lists.openehr.org/attachments/20080417/73af7f4c/attachment.asc>
