An important part of the specfications work this year is the upgraded archetype specification and the new template specification. These specifications define specialised archeytpes and also openEHR templates. The latter will now have the equivalent of the Archetype Definition Language (ADL) and the Archetype Object Model (AOM) - known as the Template Definition Language (TDL) and the Template Object Model (TOM). There will also be an Operational Template Model (OTM). The XSD expression of the AOM will be upgraded and made more efficient (there will be a new version, the old one will remain available, and an XSLT conversion script will need ot be created); a new XSD for templates will be created from the TOM; this will largely re-use the AOM XSD.
The basis of the template work has been tooling built by Ocean Informatics and used in various environments, but principally at the NHS since February 2007. This experience has provided the requirements and lessons needed to build what we believe is a solid open specification for templates that is compatible with the existing openEHR oeuvre. The acceptance of these proposals of course rests on validation via implementation, and the normal community and ARB review processes. The home page for this work can be found on the openEHR wiki at http://www.openehr.org/wiki/display/spec/openEHR+Templates+and+Specialised+Archetypes . The community is encouraged to get involved in reviewing and contributing to the material. - thomas beale
