Collaborative development of clinical templates as a national resource

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Clinical Information Modeling

Background:

• Growing need for structured clinical information standards to support system development and interoperability.
• Existing standards like openEHR Archetypes and Templates, and HL7 Templates show promise.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore engaging and supporting clinical practitioners in developing clinical information standards.
• To define a clinical template as a model for health record system content, such as continence assessments.

Main Methods:

• A three-phase project: professional development (networking), library implementation (modeling, content management), and implementation in working systems.
• Focus on creating professionally acceptable standards.

Main Results:

• Encouraging findings regarding the potential of clinical templates for defining health record content.
• Demonstrated a structured approach to developing and managing clinical information standards.

Conclusions:

• Clinical templates show promise for developing accessible and interoperable clinical information standards.
• Further research is needed to address remaining issues.
• This area is a key focus for international cooperation in standards development.