ASPECTS OF IMPLEMENTING AND HARMONIZING HEALTH-CARE COMMUNICATION STANDARDS

A variety of healthcare communication standards (HCS) have been develo ped during the last decade. They have improved the interoperability an d the connectivity in open hospital information systems to a large ext ent. They have also reduced time and efforts during the implementation of standard interfaces. However, the implementation of communication standards is still far from the expected plug and play. The two reason s which are the main cause the current drawbacks are identified-the la ck of a standardized terminology and the restricted flexibility of the currently used interchange formats. On the one hand the standardizati on of the terminology can not be solved by the standards development o rganizations. It is a general challenge for the medical informatics co mmunity. On the other hand the movement to a new interchange format ca n be initiated by standards development organizations. The application of SGML/XML as an interchange format for communication standards offe rs a much greater flexibility and adaptability to user needs than the currently used interchange formats. Concepts for a smooth change to a new direction are discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. Al l rights reserved.