Healthcare: openEHR’s potential to handle complexity & diversity

We have noted that healthcare is a complex system that is particularly  information-intensive. We have noted that healthcare reform requires clinical leadership, process improvement and effective health IT.

In noting that healthcare IT has had mixed success to date, we have identified the important need to support the greater alignment of process improvements with information systems.

While aware that the current health IT industry has some way to go, the conclusion reached in exploring this challenge to date is the international requirement for an open, generic-process-oriented health- information service-oriented-architecture standard.

As I have already introduced the openEHR specification (the result of many years of European and Australian R&D) as the leading candidate solution to this need, let me now briefly explain its key parts in a little more detail.. which can be conceptualised in 4 key layers…