Updated: Jun 18, 99
SYNAPSES NEWS

Sharing healthcare data

You will recall the generic method for accessing and sharing distributed healthcare data, developed by the Synapses project, which we invited you to an open workshop on at the end of last year.  If you have not already done so, you may wish to visit the website at

http://www.cs.tcd.ie/synapses/public

It contains the provisional ODP specification and the names of people you can talk to about it.  There are also and some guidelines on implementation from existing applications.

The point of this approach is to prevent the difficulties that will arise if several developers produce record-sharing systems and networks with their own rules and requirements, that could cause problems and expense when they eventually have to be connected and harmonised.  It also has the more immediate effect of reducing the amount of work to be done and the duplication that different solutions imply.  The generic character is fundamental.  Existing standards and products are used, and the results are put back into proposals for standards.

The Synapses project provided proof of the concept.  It is being used by other projects, notably the InterCare consortium, also supported by the EC.  Development continues along two fronts.  The first supplements the technical capabilities with terminology services - which are essential for knowing the references of the data required, the clinical significance of their content, and links to outside sources of knowledge.  That is under way in the SynEX project, supported by the European Commission.  The second incorporates records in different modalities and media, providing tools and aids for people with different levels of expertise in handling them, from specialists to workers in primary care.  That development is at the planning stage.

We trust this is of interest to you as contributing to your own development work, and you will be among the early users of the method.

Michael J Wilson

16 June 1999

Michael_WilsonJ@compuserve.com

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