update - COI demo at AMIA

Just a quick note to let you know that the COI (Clinical Observations Interoperability) task force group has completed an early demonstration application. The demo utilizes eligibility specifications from several clinical research protocols (represented using the CDISC-based standards) and (structured) patient data from EMR (represented using HL7-based standards) in order to screen the EMR data for potential research subjects. 
 
The work was presented at the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) spring meeting in Orlando last month. The talk provided some overview of the advantages and disadvantages of using Semantic Web technologies in this important scenario. The audience was impressed with the demo and our hard work.  Most of the questions revolved around the "readiness" of existing healthcare vocabularies for the web, underscoring (to me at least) the importance of the HCLS terminology group...  
 
If you are interested in viewing the slides from the presentation, they are posted  on our wiki at:
http://esw.w3.org/topic/HCLS/ClinicalObservationsInteroperability?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=amia-2009-spring.ppt

The COI typically has teleconferences on Tuesday mornings. We welcome anyone with interests in this area to join our discussions. please contact me or Vipul Kushap and we will get you the information.  Over the next few weeks, we will be discussing plans for future enhancements and additional use-cases for the group. 
 
--Rachel
 
 
Rachel Richesson, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor
USF College of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics
3650 Spectrum Blvd., Suite 100
Tampa, FL 33612
Office: (813) 396-9522
Fax: (813) 396-9601
Email: Rachel.Richesson@epi.usf.edu