OASIS has announced the creation of a new International Health Continuum Technical Committee as a "forum for companies on the Healthcare continuum internationally to voice their needs and requirements with respect to XML and Web Services."
OASIS member sponsors of the IHC TC include CommerceNet, BT, National Insurance Administration of Norway, ReadiMinds, Webify Solutions, and SeeBeyond. DeLeys Brandman (CommerceNet Consortium) is the TC Convener and Proposed TC Chair.
A principal motivation for the TC activity is that many standards organizations are working to standardize transactions in the healthcare vertical space but "little attention is being paid to the continuum of health, viz., to horizontal standards allowing all related verticals to interoperate through the use of web services tools and technologies."
A secondary motivation identified by the TC proposers is the problem of competing international standards in vertical healthcare industry domains. "International healthcare standards may diverge toward regional preferences. A goal of the committee will be to promote international healthcare standards interoperability regardless of geographic location. This is particularly important to OASIS membership since many are global organizations who will not want standards to be regional or national."
Initial goals of the OASIS TC include the creation of a healthcare interoperability report providing a process map of healthcare processes, a list of existing standards for addressing the processes, and gap analysis. The TC will also create liaisons with each of the major health continuum standards organizations.
The TC proposers "do not anticipate the development of standards in the committee unless it becomes clear that there are deficiencies in the existing vertical standards or clear voids in required interoperability across the horizontal interoperability channels. Therefore, the initial scope of the TC is only to assess the state of Web Services within the healthcare industry, gather requirements for work needed to be done, and only in exceptional cases develop standards."
The work of the OASIS TC will complement related activity being conducted within the CEN ISSS eHealth Standardization Focus Group, ITU-T Study Group 16, and other healthcare standards harmonization initiatives.
From the IHC TC Announcement and Call for Participation
Statement of Purpose
Healthcare mistakes claim numerous lives around the world every year, including up to 100,000 in the United States alone. Costs have increased globally at double digit rates over the last three years. While there are many standards organizations that work to standardize transactions in the healthcare "vertical" space (e.g., clinical, administrative, pharmaceutical, supplies and devices, insurance, government etc.) there is little attention being paid to the continuum of health; defined for our purposes as the "horizontal" standards allowing all related verticals to interoperate through the use of web services tools and technologies.
As a secondary goal, competing international standards (in the verticals) are beginning to appear. This is evident in the standards by CEN and HL7 in the Electronic Health Record (EHR). While each is a worthy effort, international healthcare standards may diverge toward regional preferences. A goal of the committee will be to promote international healthcare standards interoperability regardless of geographic location. This is particularly important to OASIS membership since many are global organizations who will not want standards to be regional or "national."
Accordingly, the purpose of the new OASIS International Health Continuum TC will be as follows:
To provide a forum for companies on the Healthcare continuum internationally to voice their needs and requirements with respect to XML and Web Services based standards which can be handed off to relevant OASIS TCs (if they exist) or cause the formation of TCs for needs that are not currently being addressed.
To provide a mechanism for the creation of best practice documents relative to the adoption of OASIS specs/standards within Healthcare systems internationally and across vertical standards organizations
To promote the adoption of OASIS specs/standards within Healthcare (including all bi-directional forms: P2G, P2B, P2C, P2P), which could include the creation of implementation-oriented pilot projects to involve software vendors and participating healthcare professionals to demonstrate the use of OASIS specs/standards.
To work with other OASIS channels (e.g., XML.org for schema registry and/or information portal, e-Gov, EPR - Electronic processes), act as a clearinghouse of information related to applicable specs/standards as well as activities and projects being conducted in Healthcare around the adoption of XML-based systems and standards.
Because of the very wide range of topics encompassed by the term "e-Health" it is expected that several sub-committees of the TC will be formed to address specific issues. These subcommittees might include (but not be limited to) "healthcare banking", "healthcare networks", "healthcare ontologies", "population health evaluations", "health care process", and "health epidemiology alert and response" just to name a few.
Scope of Work
The scope of the committee's work will include the use of OASIS and other standards (both healthcare and non-healthcare related) for interoperability utilizing web services as practical. For example, there is a clear use case for many of the HL7 standards which are clearly healthcare related, but there are also compelling reasons to adopt and recommend RosettaNet PIPs for the standardization of administrative, and potentially clinical, processes.
The proposers do not anticipate the development of standards in the committee unless it becomes clear that there are deficiencies in the existing vertical standards or clear voids in required interoperability across the horizontal interoperability channels. Therefore, the initial scope of the TC is only to assess the state of Web Services within the healthcare industry, gather requirements for work needed to be done, and only in exceptional cases develop standards.
List of Deliverables
First 12 months
Create liaisons with each of the major health continuum standards organizations
Produce a healthcare interoperability report including:
- Process map of healthcare processes (internal and external)
- List and discussion of existing standards for addressing the processes
- Gap analysis
- Recommendations to fill gaps, including the formation of new TCs at OASIS, and guidance to existing OASIS TCs or to other organizations
Ongoing TC work
Monitoring and promotion of healthcare interoperability
Promotion of OASIS Standards within:
- Governments
- Companies
- Vendors
- Health continuum members identified in the process map
Determine need for technical work, and develop proposals for new OASIS TCs to develop specifications to fill gaps
Continue liaison activities
The TC will know that its work is completed when there are complete and standard solutions for healthcare interoperability.
Audience
The audience of the TC work is anticipated to be:
- "Upstream/Downstream" focused employees of all companies in the health continuum
- IT vendors desirous of interoperability along the continuum
- IT vendors presently focused on a vertical market, desirous of expanding their focus
- Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) attempting to coordinate their efforts with strategic partners outside their immediate vertical
- Government entities focused on improving the performance of the entire health continuum
Identification of similar or applicable work
The proposers anticipate that the TC will establish liaison with other organizations doing similar or related work, including the following:
- RosettaNet
- DISA
- EPR Forum
- HL7
- HIMSS
- IHE
- OASIS eGov TC
- OASIS BCM TC
- OMG
- UN/CEFACT Healthcare Committee
- WEDI
- HR-XML Consortium
- OAG
- ANSI X12
- ISO SG 215
- W3C
- ACORD
Date and time of the first meeting
The first meeting of the TC will be held as a teleconference on 2 September 2004 at 9:00 a.m. ET, hosted by CommerceNet. The first face-to-face meeting will be held in Brussels in conjunction with the OASIS Fall conference the week of 4 October 2004, hosted by OASIS.
TC Proposers
The names, electronic mail addresses, and membership affiliations of Eligible Persons:
- DeLeys Brandman, dbrandman@commerce.net, CommerceNet
- Ed Dodds, dodds@e-dodds.com, Individual member
- Dr. Peter Elkin, elkin.peter@mayo.edu, Individual Member
- Ian Jones, ian.c.jones@bt.com, British Telecommunications
- Torsten Kirchner, torsten.kirschner@trygdeetaten.no, National Insurance Administration of Norway
- Naren Nagpal, naren.nagpal@readiMinds.com, ReadiMinds
- Dan Pattyn, danpattyn@austin.rr.com, Individual Member
- Manoj Saxena, manoj.saxena@webifysolutions.com, Webify Solutions
- Kumar Sivaraman, Kumarsivaraman@Seebeyond.com, SeeBeyond Technology Corporation
Convener
The name and email address of the TC Convener:
DeLeys Brandman
CommerceNet Consortium
dbrandman@commerce.net
Proposed TC Chair
DeLeys Brandman
CommerceNet Consortium
dbrandman@commerce.net
Principal References
- Announcement: OASIS TC Call for Participation: International Health Continuum (IHC)
- IHC TC URLs:
- OASIS International Health Continuum TC web site
- IHC TC Charter
- IHC TC discussion list archives
- Contact: DeLeys Brandman (CommerceNet).
- "XML in Clinical Research and Healthcare Industries." Reference document providing a collection of references to standards activities and formal specifications used in clinical research and healthcare industries. Provisionally:
- ASTM Committee E31 on Healthcare Informatics
- CDC Public Health Information Network (PHIN)
- CEN/TC 251 Health Informatics
- CEN ISSS eHealth Standardization Focus Group
- Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC)
- Clinical Document Architecture (CDA)
- Consolidated Health Informatics (CHI) Initiative
- Continuity of Care Record (CCR)
- Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM)
- Electronic Common Technical Document (eCTD) for Pharmaceuticals
- Guideline Elements Model (GEM)
- Healthcare Informatics Standards Board (HISB)
- Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)
- Health Level Seven (HL7)
- Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE)
- ITU-T Study Group 16
- Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC)
- Open Electronic Health Record Foundation (openEHR)
- Structured Product Labeling (SPL)
- Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED)
- Web3D Consortium Medical Working Group (MedX3D)
