Stream: implementers
Topic: European Interoperability Reference Architecture and FHIR
Viktor Jernelöv (Nov 21 2019 at 08:30):
I've been poking around a bit to see if anyone in the FHIR community is involved in or have heard of attempts to map FHIR to EIRA:
From the EIRA website:
The European Interoperability Reference Architecture (EIRA©) is an architecture content metamodel defining the most salient architectural building blocks (ABBs) needed to build interoperable e-Government systems. The EIRA© provides a common terminology that can be used by people working for public administrations in various architecture and system development tasks. The EIRA© was created and is being maintained in the context of Action 2016.32 of the ISA² Programme. The EIRA uses (and extends) the ArchiMate language as a modelling notation and uses service orientation as an architectural style.
The idea is that a mapping to EIRA could help policy makers, architects, portfolio managers etc better see and communicate what areas of interoperability the FHIR standard addresses, and what other potentially salient areas need to be addressed elsewhere in order to achieve interoperability in a given case.
Has anyone heard of anyone doing this? Do you think it's a good idea? Does it have potential to be useful?
Grahame Grieve (Nov 21 2019 at 08:31):
I think I've previously been asked about this once, by another swede.
Viktor Jernelöv (Nov 21 2019 at 08:34):
No Grahame, it was the same Swede asking you :)
I spoke to Lloyd and he suggested I asked here, so I did.
Grahame Grieve (Nov 21 2019 at 08:39):
oh. by the same swede!
Lloyd McKenzie (Nov 21 2019 at 15:08):
@Simone Heckmann @Jose Costa Teixeira (Feel free to add others)
Simone Heckmann (Nov 21 2019 at 15:09):
@Christof Gessner ...?
Jose Costa Teixeira (Nov 21 2019 at 15:26):
Yumm, metamodel.
Jose Costa Teixeira (Nov 21 2019 at 15:27):
Some thoughts:
Given the way FHIR makes good use of metadata, there are some interesting common points that could be used to map/match
Jose Costa Teixeira (Nov 21 2019 at 15:30):
Some of the things in EIRA are explicit in / by FHIR . Reference data (codesystems), data models (on the technical and logical levels - resources, profiles and logical models)
Christof Gessner (Nov 21 2019 at 15:31):
There is a very useful interoperability model that builds directly on an older version of the EIF (European Interoperabilty Framework), so it has the same roots as the EIRA. It adds a few very useful details for healthcare: Split the Organisational layer into "Policy" and "Care Process" in order to account for patient-related and non-patient-related organisational aspects. Also split Technical into "Applications" and "IT Infrastructure", the latter being not specific for healthcare.
See https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/health/files/ehealth/docs/ev_20151123_co03_en.pdf
I am not aware of efforts to link this framework to more recent developments like EIRA. However, on the European level some forces are pushing towards using healthcare-independent "building-blocks" for infrastructure.
Jose Costa Teixeira (Nov 21 2019 at 15:31):
Some of the things in EIRA are implicitly in FHIR (rules, principles)
Christof Gessner (Nov 21 2019 at 15:39):
The challenge in Europe is that healthcare governance differs between countries. And in many countries the care processes and responsibilities are very different from eGovernment.
Jens Villadsen (Nov 21 2019 at 20:46):
Yet, FHIR could just as well have been mentioned in the report. It is however not
Viktor Jernelöv (Nov 22 2019 at 10:12):
So it seems there are at least some familiarity with EIRA and EIF (and ReEIF) within the community then. My gut feeling is that there could be some value in providing a mapping between EIRA and FHIR (even though an EIRA version based on ReEIF would've been preferable). I could give it an attempt, but since I'm not particularly knowledgeable in neither the FHIR standard itself, nor EIRA I would definitely be needing support in making sure it's an accurate description of the standard's capabilities expressed using the EIRA syntax.
Who thinks this is worth the time and effort?
Jose Costa Teixeira (Nov 22 2019 at 13:39):
Bridging sounds better than Mapping.
Jose Costa Teixeira (Nov 22 2019 at 13:40):
I can't help but volunteering, yes
Umberto Cappellini (Nov 22 2019 at 13:40):
I think IHE would fit more than FHIR as a Reference Architecture derived by the EIRA meta-model.
This is what Denmark has done: http://4s-online.dk/wiki/doku.php?id=standards:refark
Jens Villadsen (Nov 23 2019 at 00:04):
Being a dane, I can say the linked material does not entirely reflect the truth
Umberto Cappellini (Nov 28 2019 at 15:48):
Being a dane, I can say the linked material does not entirely reflect the truth
Interesting. IHE/XDS was not adopted at the end ?
Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC
