Ontology-Based Interoperability Service for HL7 Interfaces Implementation Carolina González, Bernd Blobel and Diego López eHealth Competence Center, Regensurg University Software Engineering Research Group, University of Cauca Telematics Research Group, University of Cauca June, 2010 EFMI STC 2010 Conference. Seamless care - safe care Reykjavík June 2-4

Contents Related Work Methods Research Results Conclusions Introduction 1

Introduction (I) Because healthcare information is distributed, access to, and sharing of, distributed information sources is a challenging task. The implementation of semantically interoperable HIS allows to solve most effectively and efficiently this problem. Introduction Related Work Methods Results Conclusions

Introduction (II) The challenge to realize computable semantic interoperability throught HL7 Version 3.0 has not been solved yet. The proposed approach is: Restricted to the implementation of HL7 interfaces for legacy systems integration, being supported in an ontology-based mapping of HL7 information models. Support semantic interoperability among healthcare services and applications. Introduction Related Work Methods Results Conclusions

Contents Introduction Related Work Methods Research Results Conclusions

Related Work Introducción Related Work Methods Results Conclusions

Contents Introduction Related Work Methods Research Results Conclusions

Methods (I) Introducción Related Work Methods Results Conclusions

Methods (II) Analyze Health Domain Ontologies/Terminologies Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine - Clinical Terms (SNOMED-CT) Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC). Open Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) Introducción Related Work Methods Results Conclusions

Contents Introduction Related Work Methods Research Results Conclusions

Research Results (I) Create a service for semantic interoperability. The service uses formal ontologies to model concepts and interrelations of each application domain. This approach provides real semantic interoperability between healthcare applications. Introducción Related Work Methods Results Conclusions

Research Results (I) Introducción Related Work Methods Results Conclusions

Research Results (II) The challenge is to create formal application ontologies. The applications domain concepts have to be transformed into corresponding concepts in OWL, using Rational Software Architect (UML/XSD to OWL). - Conceptual Model Formalization

Research Results (III) It is responsible to realize the mapping between the formal application ontologies. To ensure the mapping quality, we use a domain ontology which includes the greatest number of healthcare domain concepts. - Ontology Mapper

Research Results (IV) It is responsible for facilitating the automatic generation of the HL7 Information Models. For each formal application ontology, the intelligent component finds its corresponding R- MIM and transforms it into OWL. - Automatic Interface Generator

Conclusions (I) Introducción Related Work Methods Results Conclusions New approach for HL7-based semantic interoperability. The use of formal application ontologies as a initial mechanism to achieve semantic interoperability The use of domain ontologies to support formal application ontologies mapping process, integrated into an architectural framework.

Conclusions (II) Introducción Related Work Methods Results Conclusions The current approach aims at reducing the limitations of existing systems and tools for HL7 interface implementation. The approach can be extended to a service integrated into Health Information Systems architectures, supporting semantic exchange between health services.

Thank you for your attention! Bernd Blobel Ph.D., Associate Professor Head, eHealth Competence Center University Hospital Regensburg Franz-Josef-Strauß-Allee 11 D Regensburg Bavaria, Germany Phone: Fax: