An HL7-CDA wrapper for facilitating semantic interoperability to rule-based Clinical Decision Support Systems

The success of Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) greatly depends on its capability of being integrated in Health Information Systems (HIS). Several proposals have been published up to date to permit CDSS gathering patient data from HIS. Some base the CDSS data input on the HL7 reference model, however, they are tailored to specific CDSS or clinical guidelines technologies, or do not focus on standardizing the CDSS resultant knowledge. We propose a solution for facilitating semantic interoperability to rule-based CDSS focusing on standardized input and output documents conforming an HL7-CDA wrapper. We define the HL7-CDA restrictions in a HL7-CDA implementation guide. Patient data and rule inference results are mapped respectively to and from the CDSS by means of a binding method based on an XML binding file. As an independent clinical document, the results of a CDSS can present clinical and legal validity. The proposed solution is being applied in a CDSS for providing patient-specific recommendations for the care management of outpatients with diabetes mellitus.