An Architecture for Semantically Interoperable Electronic Health Records.

Despite the increasing adhesion of electronic health records, the challenge of semantic interoperability remains unsolved. The fact that different parties can exchange messages does not mean they can understand the underlying clinical meaning, therefore, it cannot be assumed or treated as a requirement. This work introduces an architecture designed to achieve semantic interoperability, in a way which organizations that follow different policies may still share medical information through a common infrastructure comparable to an ecosystem, whose organisms are exemplified within the Brazilian scenario. Nonetheless, the proposed approach describes a service-oriented design with modules adaptable to different contexts. We also discuss the establishment of an enterprise service bus to mediate a health infrastructure defined on top of international standards, such as openEHR and IHE. Moreover, we argue that, in order to achieve truly semantic interoperability in a wide sense, a proper profile must be published and maintained.