Re: semantic web for EHRs

> > U.S.? (There's little here from what I can see - the interoperability
> push is around SOAP).
>
> In my view, SOAP is the wrong direction.  It is just adds complexity and
> contributes to "babelization":
> http://www.w3.org/2003/Talks/0717-semweb-dbooth/slide10-0.html
>

you're right but here's the rub - there's $'s in babel. Bad IT - translation
layers and their maintenance - is good business, sometimes.

Take the U.S. NHIN CONNECT project whose laudable goal is to allow patient
record exchange between institutions big and small. It tackles what's need -
security, credentials, opt-in etc - and then ... well, it gets all SOAP'y.
Gateways, adapters, layers, all those layers. What about a "web of
interlinked data", just add security policy ...??

It's annoying because think how easy linking is - in reality and now, not
just conceptually, some time away. (I know I'm preaching to the choir here
but ...)

Take a patient vital -
http://vista.caregraf.org/rambler/120.5/716(Christopher's blood
pressure at a date). This record is typed by the VA
vital type, http://vista.caregraf.org/rambler/120.51/1 (blood pressure), one
of 19 that the system records ( http://vista.caregraf.org/rambler/120.51 ).
Vital type is a "locked file" (
http://vista.caregraf.org/rambler/schema/120.51 ), one of many terminology
files in VistA.

Now, on the face of it, such data is meaningless outside this VistA. We need
a "mapping layer", an "RPC". A "type-mapper". A reformatter. Layers ...

BUT WE KNOW (on this group) that it is trival to do something like ...
                        :120.51/1 ---- same as -----> SNOMED:392570002
and heh presto, your vitals are "linked". Were Christopher lucky enough to
end up in the Cleveland Clinic then this and his other data would be trivial
to query - no longer site or even VA-specific.

And this isn't an isolated case. It's true in general. (I'm working on an
"linked patient browser" - needs very little code - and this principle holds
true for procedures, medicines, vaccines ...).

The train is leaving the station on health records (in the U.S. 'meaningful
use' is about to get nailed down) and they're made for the web of data but
all we have are soap bubbles, all a drift ...