Health data standards’ limitations

Data represent foundational assets of any healthcare delivery system. Clinical data form the basis of electronic communications from point of data collection to storage and archiving. Computers cannot handle ambivalence, hence the need for the widespread adoption of technical and terminology standards. Many domain ontologies and terminologies, developed to suit a variety of different purposes well before this digital era, are reviewed and examined to determine their usability within a digital ecosystem. The ontological data modelling approach was found to result in the highest degrees of expressivity and formalism available today. Resulting artefacts linked to standard value sets were found to be most comprehensive with their ability to best represent data for a lifetime support, patient safety, and electronic communication. Many issues and limitations, such as variations regarding design principles used, overlaps, and shortcomings, are identified and discussed. There is a need for a major globally led transformation.

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