I have forwarded this message from the HL7 lists to this one because of it's general interest to this group. -Brian
Hi again, in this message I am soliciting your opinion on a very concrete question, I am especially asking you as an implementor/vendor of HL7 standards. (1) What do you think is would be the value of a reference implementation of the HL7 version 3 data type (V3DT) specification? (2) What programming language would you like to see such a reference implementation? (3) Would you use the reference implementation in your own software as you prepare for HL7 version 3? The background to those questions is that I recognize the HL7 version 3 data type specification is pretty abstract and at the same time surfaces a lot of issues that an implementation needs to take care of. Thus people may be afraid that this stuff is not implementable or to complex for them. Some might fear that if HL7 version 3 is going down that path it may become a perfect standard, but may not be a *useful* standard. While I can understand people having those fears, I do believe that the version 3 data types will make things easier in the long run. Especially as we struggle towards more interoperability: our goal is to share *meaning* not just characters in data fields, and precise definition of meaning is oftentimes not trivial. This is especially important for clinical data. I personally would like to help HL7 implementers appreciate the V3DT specification and to receive its benefits without too many hassles. I would also like to present a stronger proof of concept for the entire V3DT approach. A reference implementation (V3DTREF) in the form of open-source code would be an ideal way to do this. However, this requires a considerable committment to resource allocations to this project. This does not make sense if there are no "customers" for it. I know that some vendors are reluctant to use third-party code since this may turn out to be a maintenance trap. Also the problem is that not everyone uses the same platform for development. Since V3DTREF would be a software component for tight integration into HL7 systems, it needs to be very close to the software development environment that people intend to use for their own HL7 v3 projects. Data types need to be right under the hood, not just loosely connected from outside by long wires. A Java Bean, a CORBA component or an ActiveX control may already be too far away. My reference platform of choice for this project would certainly be Java, since it is the most hassle-free answer to multi-platform support. However, Java does have downsides, mainly in the area of performance and failure to integrate smoothly in multi-language projects. I'd be interested to hear whether people consider Java as the platform for their HL7 v3 developments. This project is not yet going, it is just my personal idea and I don't even know if I can spend any resources on this. I appreciate any of your thoughts to add to the little "brain-storm" here. Also, I would appreciate to know whether you would consider helping in such a project, either through commitment of time or through funding. sincerely, -Gunther Gunther Schadow, MD ------------------------------ http://aurora.rg.iupui.edu Regenstrief Institute for Health Care 1001 W 10th Street RG5, Indianapolis IN 46202, Phone: (317) 630 7960 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------- #include <usual/disclaimer> --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe cq" (without the quotes) in the message body.
