GELLO and SNOMED

It’s and awesome combination. Thats the feeling we have after completing the first round of integration between our GELLO interpreter and our SNOMED-CT server.

One simple Method “.implies” has some much power in a multiple inheritance hierarchy like SNOMED-CT.

For instance:

This is a Laparoscopic appendix in SNOMED-CT

let Chole:SD = Factory.SnomedUtterance(”602280XX|Cholecystectomy, exploration of duct and cholangiogram|”)

Now what can the computer tell about this surgery? Well quite a lot really!

It has a parent of Cholangiogram so you can ask if a cholangiogram was done like this:

let CholangiogramDone: Boolean = Chole.implies(Factory.SnomedUtterance(”283670XX|Cholangiogram|”))
Now was this an open procedure or a laparoscopic one?

let Laparoscopic: SD = Factory.SnomedUtterance(”736320XX|Laparoscopic Procedure|”)

let isLaparoscopic: Boolean = Chole.implies(Laparoscopic)

This sort if information gathering is very useful in clinical decision support and GELLO is the perfect language to write the logic in.

At last we have a path to computable medical records!

Posted in DECISION SUPPORT, EHR, GELLO, SNOMED, STANDARDS | No Comments »

A Plea for Standards

While everyone talks about moving to rich Semantic communication as if it is the next step, the reality is somewhat different.

Medical-Objects has the ability to enable communication between applications and to some this ability is somewhat of a mystery. The answer is in fact easy however… its calls standards compliance, in fact, strict standards compliance. When we deliver reports from any provider we aim to make the messages that are sent compliant even if we know the errors won’t cause problems. We heavily use the message testing facilities of AHML by doing this have a common standard for message transmission.

Virtually every problem in interoperability we have seen is due to non compliance with standards, or to be blunt, errors in the messages. Its useless saying “I think our messages are compliant“, that almost certainly means they are not, just like software development, it requires proper testing, and retesting whenever a change is made.

The single most useful action that would transform interoperability overnight in the Australian setting is an obligation to send only AHML certified messages, by insisting on AHML certification for all health IT applications.

Then we could start thinking about semantic interoperability, until then its a pipe dream. Its time for NEHTA to act….

Posted in HL7, STANDARDS | No Comments »