Conceptual Modeling in Health Information Technology

Abstract

Electronic health record (EHR) systems are the cornerstone of any modern health service. Studies have consistently shown, however, that introducing EHR systems is a complex task, with difficulties stemming from technical designs that fit poorly with the details of clinical work practices. Given the evolving role of EHRs, a unified framework for a holistic modeling approach is needed in health IT. Current conceptual modeling techniques use object-oriented diagrams as their main tools; the nature of this methodology requires breaking the system's behavior into several pieces and then further decomposing those pieces into other diagrams. This chapter introduces a conceptual-modeling methodology that is based on flows; it also presents different conceptualizations of such notions as processes, things (objects), and events. Without a loss of generality, this chapter focuses on documenting patterns of clinician-information use cases and tools for evaluating EHR implementation.