Using Knowledge Graph Structures for Semantic Interoperability in Electronic Health Records Data Exchanges

Abstract

Information sharing across medical institutions is restricted to information exchange between specific partners. The lifelong electronic health records (EHR) structure and content require standardization efforts. The existing standards such as openEHR, HL7, and CEN TC251 EN 13606 (Technical committee on Health Informatics of the European Committee for Standardization) aim to achieve data independence along with semantic interoperability. This study aims to discover knowledge representation to achieve semantic health data exchange. OpenEHR and CEN TC251 EN 13606 use archetype-based technology for semantic interoperability. The HL7 Clinical Document Architecture is on its way to adopting this through HL7 templates. Archetypes are the basis for knowledge-based systems as these are means to define clinical knowledge. The paper examines a set of formalisms for the suitability of describing, representing, and reasoning about archetypes. Each of the information exchange technologies such as XML, Web Ontology Language, Object Constraint Language, and Knowledge Interchange Format is evaluated as a part of the knowledge representation experiment. These examine the representation of Archetypes as described by Archetype Definition Language. The evaluation maintains a clear focus on the syntactic and semantic transformations among different EHR standards.