Title: A distributed integration system enabling electronic health records: an Italian experience

Authors: Cinzia Muriana; Giulio Gilia; Vincenzo Mistretta; Tommaso Piazza; Giovan Battista Vizzini

Addresses: Istituto Mediterraneo per i Trapianti e Terapie, ad alta specializzazione (IRCCS – ISMETT), Via Tricomi 5, 90133 Palermo, Italy; University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Italy, Via Discesa dei Giudici 4, 90133 Palermo, Italy ' University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Italy, Via Discesa dei Giudici 4, 90133 Palermo, Italy ' University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Italy, Via Discesa dei Giudici 4, 90133 Palermo, Italy ' University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Italy, Via Discesa dei Giudici 4, 90133 Palermo, Italy ' Istituto Mediterraneo per i Trapianti e Terapie, ad alta specializzazione (IRCCS – ISMETT), Via Tricomi 5, 90133 Palermo, Italy; University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Italy, Via Discesa dei Giudici 4, 90133 Palermo, Italy

Abstract: Today distributed systems are commonly employed in patient data management to improve the care process. Moreover, distributed systems can be usefully applied to realise lean and flexible architectures that facilitate healthcare structure interoperability. Systems used in healthcare structures are characterised by proprietary data flow formats and encoding systems, which hinder the possibility of sharing data in a standard format, and extracting atomic data for further analysis. This paper describes the architecture of a distributed interoperability system able to structure flow data into standard formats and send them to an advanced electronic health record designed as part of the Smart Health 2.0 project (PON04a2_C). The use of the distributed interoperability system within the experimental phase of the electronic health record highlights the flexibility of the proposed solution in meeting the reality of the healthcare structures involved.

Keywords: distributed systems; informatics healthcare solutions; CDA2; electronic health records; medical informatics; medical engineering.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMEI.2019.096889

International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics, 2019 Vol.11 No.1, pp.1 - 13

Received: 13 Dec 2016
Accepted: 01 Jun 2017
Published online: 13 Dec 2018 *

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