Executive Summary:

The aim of this project is to carry out research in healthcare by developing Health Level 7-based software framework in order to provide health services for diverse communities of the world. The envisaged development of HL7 middleware software will be focused on healthcare information systems already in use. The objective is to facilitate e-health services interoperable among various domains in the field such as laboratory, patient administration, pharmacy, billing and accounting etc.

This project is based on HL7 version 3.0 standards because of its distinct benefits over previous versions. HL7 Version 3 is consistent with futuristic specification inherent in UML (Unified Modeling Language) models and object-oriented concepts. It offers an opportunity to provide an open source, vendor-neutral framework comprising generic components, integration mechanisms, together with a process for staged customization to meet not international standards but also the requirements of healthcare delivery organizations.

Because of the diversity and complexity of the requirement, the project will be conducted in several phases. Initially, our plan is to design and implement HL7 Version 3 basic domains such as laboratory, patient administration. In the second phase, we plan to integrate SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) to HL7. During the last phase of the project, we would evolve and propose an ontology-based HL7 system; a true semantics. The ultimate goal is to define the HL7 Web service as Semantic web services. After its post-development testing in the end-user environment, we will make the software publicly available under an open-source license. In view of its cutting-edge nature, this software solution has the potential of establishing our national repute in the highly profitable and potent healthcare industry.

Following benefits are likely to accrue from the project:

• Local and global healthcare organizations including hospitals, medical laboratories and healthcare vendors will be able to use our system to achieve inter-domain and across-domain semantic interoperability with the advantage of exchanging healthcare information in a secure and reliable manner.

• Being a cost-effective open source, it will fetch leading service-orientated HL7 and ontology-based HL7 global recognition.

• The project will open avenues for research and development on other healthcare standards, like openEHR- a standard for architecture of electronic health records and SNOMED CT- a standard for defining terms in ontologies used in clinical trials.

• The project will create an expert community in the domain of healthcare information exchange and interoperability. This will enables us to take the initiative for affiliation of Pakistan to HL7 organization.

• The project will unfold opportunities for cooperation with universities and organizations involved in HL7 and related research, as well as development of healthcare software and systems.

• Through localization process, we intend to customize the developed system according to the specific requirements of customers in a country/region anywhere in the world.