Development and Evaluation of A Guideline for Designing Data Models of Hospital Information Systems based on the HL7 Reference Information Model - From the Study on Developing Patient Profile Server -

Abstract

 The Reference Information Model (RIM) provided by Health Level Seven is one of the most practical information models for the healthcare domains. It can be used as a shared reference model for healthcare information systems. However, inconsistent application of the RIM decreases the benefit of it as a common reference model and it makes difficult to achieve a sufficient level of interoperability. This paper presents a derivation process of data models based on the RIM in the development of a patient profile data server. We then discuss a set of practical guidelines for designing data models based on the RIM. The result shows that deriving data models directly from the RIM and clearly separating the data models from the RIM are effective for achieving the temporal and geographical interoperability among hospital information systems.