Dr Ian McNicoll

Anatomy of an eHealth app

Anatomy of an eHealth app

Anatomy of an eHealth app

the ‘application’

The part of the software that the user sees and works with

Anatomy of an eHealth app

Anatomy of an eHealth app

the “persistence layer”How and where the information is physically stored or ‘saved’

in a local database, in the ‘cloud’ usually the app must know the physical layout ‘schema’ of the database to know how to retrieve the information e.g. exactly where patient ID ,systolic and diastolic BP etc are located in the database

The app must also understand the database query language

SQL, mongoDB, Cassandra

Anatomy of an eHealth app

Anatomy of an eHealth app

the ‘information model’?Any definition of the structure and content of information that should be collected or shared

A ‘minimal dataset’ A message or interface definition Internally every application has some kind of information model

Sharing information requires developing shared information models

the ‘information model’Is used to manipulate information in the computer’s memory

Often written in a specific program language

Generally locked-in to each application

Not easily shareable

What is in an API?

Application Programming Interface

how modern web apps talk to each other

request/ receive some sort of ‘structured content’

https://ehrscape.code-4-health.org/rest/v1/composition/12345-123?format=STRUCTURED

Changing Architectures

Megasuite

Best of Breed

Platform

Open Ecosystem

“One system to rule them all” NPfIT Enterprise/GP Systems Limited external integrations

Many systems ~ 100 Portals Integration engines Bespoke integrations

“Own the Platform” Healthvault, Apple, Orion, etc ~1000 apps Partner interfaces

The “Internet “of Digital Health The Code4Health platform The Healthcare Services Platform Consortium

‘Megasuite’ architecture

‘Megasuite’ architecture

‘Best of breed’ architecture

‘closed platform’ architecture

‘closed platform’ architecture

‘the open platform’

‘free the data’

In the future,the organisation or company that handles your health datastore will be separate from

the company or organisation that build your applications.

‘open platform’ architecture App App App

open Information Model

Clinicians in control

The ‘bi-modal’ EHR?Bimodal IT is the practice of managing two separate, coherent modes of IT delivery, one focused on stability and the other on agility. Mode 1 is traditional and sequential, emphasizing safety and accuracy.

Mode 2 is exploratory and nonlinear, emphasizing agility and speed.

open Platform+