On Thu, 02 Mar 2000 Alvin B. Marcelo wrote:
> 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?
No. I've tried to bring this up several times, unsuccessfully, and was
basically either ignored or told what internal data format I should be
using.
> 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?
Well, in a word... no.
Each standard is either an interchange format or an idea for how to keep
data internally. CORBA is a protocol for storing information using an ORB
(Object Request Broker) and CorbaMed is a subset of that. Of course, that's
all fine and good unless you aren't using an ORB yourself, in which case
someone would have to build a bridge for other systems, so it doesn't
really fly as an interchange format. The GEHR is not an interchange format
-- it's an idea for how to store medical data, and while it may be good for
that, it has to rely on something else as an interchange format. (I'm going
to skin CEN, as I am not familiar with it). Out of all of the items you
listed, only HL7 has some viability as an interchange format, but it
requires everyone to either write their own parser or use hl7lib (check out
sourceforge for this one). I really don't know about all of HL7's
capabilities or fields, but so long as no one goes the Microsoft
"proprietary extensions" way on that protocol, it seems to be the way to
go, otherwise we all get stuck with CorbaMed, which only works for the
CORBA based projects.
> Which of the above can give me that flexibility?
HL7 is a good idea for an interchange format, but makes a lousy storage
medium. Use whatever you think is the best for internal data storage, so
long as you can map it to an interchange format like HL7. (That's why I
think that in a way GEHR is a really good storage idea -- their mappings
are excellent)
> 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.
I've been saying this for a very long time as well, but no one ever seems
to want to talk about it -- everyone would rather talk about why XXXX is
the greatest thing since sliced bread, but not how we should be blowing off
this proprietary model of "every man for himself" and forging ahead in the
Open Source (tm) way ... by using our collective bargaining and brain power
to bring a new standard.
We all have to compete with guys like WebMD, who frankly have much more
money and man-power than any of the groups working on free projects. But I
think we have a better way of doing things, and if we don't all kill each
other or committee everything to death, we have a good chance of being able
to change the world of electronic medicine.
I'm coming down off the pulpit now.
*************************
jeff b
system administrator
university communications
university of connecticut
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
