Towards a Conceptual Framework for Persistent Use: A Technical Plan to Achieve Semantic Interoperability within Electronic Health Record Systems

Abstract

Semantic interoperability within the health care sector requires that patient data be fully available and shared without ambiguity across participating health facilities. Ongoing discussions to achieve interoperability within the health care industry continue to emphasize the need for healthcare facilities to successfully adopt and implement Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. Reluctance by the healthcare industry to implement these EHRs for the purpose of achieving interoperability has led to the current research problem where it was determined that there is no existing single data standardization structure that can effectively share and interpret patient data within heterogeneous systems. The current research used the design science research methodology (DSRM) to design and develop a master data standardization and translation (MDST) model which incorporated the Resource Description Framework (RDF) that allowed seamless exchange of healthcare data among multiple facilities. Using RDF, a universal exchange language, allowed for multiple data models and vocabularies to be easily combined and interrelated within a single environment thereby reducing data definition ambiguity.