1. OpenCDS: an Open-Source, Standards-Based, Service-Oriented Framework for Scalable CDS
Open Health Tools Board Meeting
February 24, 2012
Kensaku Kawamoto, MD, PhD
Founder, OpenCDS (
Director, Knowledge Management and Mobilization
Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics
University of Utah

2. Background
Clinical decision support (CDS) is one of the most promising strategies available for improving patient care
E.g., alerts and reminders, disease management dashboards
CDS is not widely available, due in part to the tight coupling of CDS capabilities with specific institutions and health IT systems
A service-oriented approach to CDS could potentially enable CDS at scale
SCT 14May

3. OpenCDS
Multi-institutional effort to collaboratively develop standards-based, open-source CDS tools and resources to enable CDS at scale
Builds on predecessor system (SEBASTIAN) developed from early 2000s – 2009
OpenCDS initiated 2009
1.0 Release March 2012

4. Collaborators Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío, Spain
University of Utah
HLN Consulting, LLC
Apelon, Inc.
Intermountain Healthcare
New York Citywide Immunization Registry
Alabama Department of Public Health
Kaiser Permanente of S. Calif.
Veterans Health Administration
Wolters Kluwer Health
EBSCO
Univ. of NC at Chapel Hill
Main Line Health
Stanford University
Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío, Spain
Keona Health
Mass. General Hospital
MaRS Innovation, Canada
SmartCare, Africa
Emetra AS, Norway
Visumpoint, LLC
Genesys, LLC
df8health
Religent, Inc.
IsoDynamic, Inc.
Calcudos.com, Inc.
CogniTech Corporation

5. OpenCDS – Architectural Overview
Standard Interface:
HL7/OMG Decision Support Service Standard (
Standard Data Models:
HL7 Virtual Medical Record (vMR) Standard
[ Virtual_Medical_Record_(vMR) ]
Institution A
Trigger
Queries for required pt
data
Patient Data Sources
Patient data,
knowledge modules to use
Client Decision Support Apps
Conclusions about patient
Institution B
Client Decision Support Apps
Patient Data Sources
Queries for required pt
data
OpenCDS
CDS Service
Knowledge Modules
SCT 14May

6. Decision Support Service
CDS Services – Example
Eval. Result
VMR
CCD
Pt data
Patient Data Sources
Decision Support Service
EHR System
SCT 14May

7. OpenCDS Deliverables
Fully-featured, standards-based knowledge management platform
Supports knowledge authoring, testing, and maintenance
Uses relevant standards (e.g., HL7 vMR data model)
Leverages relevant open-source resources (e.g., JBoss Drools, JBoss jBPM, Apelon DTS)
Support for HL7/OMG DSS standard
Enables delivery of CDS via standard service interface
Domain-Optimized Tools and Resources
E.g., next-gen vaccine validation and forecasting platform
CDS platforms leveraging OpenCDS services
E.g., for population health management

8. Summary Report Project Name: OpenCDS
Brief Project Description: Multi-institutional effort to collaboratively develop standards-based, open-source clinical decision support (CDS) tools and resources that can be widely adopted to enable CDS at scale.
Major milestones to date: 1.0 RC9 in Feb 2012
Projected milestones: 1.0 in March 2012
Major release dates: 1.0 in March 2012
Contribution date: March 2012
Contribution value: (Person years or market value or lines of code)
Approximately 6.5 person years invested in the original contribution plus new work within the OpenCDS project team.

9. OHT OpenCDS Feb 2012 Boca Chart
Content
Pressures
Added
Integrate existing Web presence
and collaboration infrastructure
(opencds.org) with OHT platform
Meet CDS business needs and
timelines of contributing
organizations
Needs outpacing available
resources
Knowledge management
platform – Implemented full
stack for authoring, testing, and
managing knowledge resources.
Iteratively defining based on
operational use.
HL7/OMG Decision Support
Service (DSS) interface –
Implemented Evaluation interface
with HL7 Virtual Medical Record
(vMR) payload. Working on
support for CCD/C32 payload.
Domain-optimized resources –
Developing vaccine validation and
forecasting platform.
N/A
Deleted & Changed
N/A
Dependencies
Packaging Editions
JBoss Drools, in particular
Drools Guvnor
JBoss jBPM
Apelon DTS
Eclipse Helios 3.6 with
M2Eclipse, Subclipse, and Drools
plugins
Milestones
1.0 Release, March 2012
Statistics .

10. Major Dates and Deliverables 1Q2012
12 Month Rolling Plan
Major Dates and Deliverables 1Q2012
1Q13
1.1 Release, Feb 2013
1.1 Release Candidates, Sept 2012 – Jan 2013
4Q12
3Q12
2Q12
1.0 Release, March 2012
1Q12

11. For More Information….
OHT Day, March 5 (Mon) 10am ET  OpenCDS Overview
OpenCDS Web site (
Kensaku Kawamoto, MD, PhD
Founder, OpenCDS
Director, Knowledge Management and Mobilization
Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics
University of Utah