XML and its impact on content and structure in electronic health care documents

Worldwide information networks have the requirement that electronic documents must be easily accessible, portable, flexible and system-independent. With the development of XML (eXtensible Markup Language), the future of electronic documents, health care informatics and the Web itself are about to change. The intent of the recently formed ASTM E31.25 subcommittee, "XML DTDs for Health Care", is to develop standard electronic document representations of paper-based health care documents and forms. A goal of the subcommittee is to work together to enhance existing levels of interoperability among the various XML/SGML standardization efforts, products and systems in health care. The ASTM E31.25 subcommittee uses common practices and software standards to develop the implementation recommendations for XML documents in health care. The implementation recommendations are being developed to standardize the many different structures of documents. These recommendations are in the form of a set of standard DTDs, or document type definitions that match the electronic document requirements in the health care industry. This paper discusses recent efforts of the ASTM E31.25 subcommittee.