The medical information bus: overview of the medical device data language

The Medical Information Bus (MIB) reference model defines a new, object-oriented Medical Device Data Language (MDDL), under development by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Society (IEEE) P1073 MIB Standard Committee. The MDDL treats medical devices, host computers, humans and device parameters as objects, and provides a flexible and extensible language for describing and passing messages between objects. This paper describes the MDDL semantic reference model and presents an overview of the MDDL structure, within the framework of the International Standards Organization (ISO) System Management Overview (SMO) model. A simple example of how the MDDL can be used to construct a device event report is also described.