Supporting integrated care with a flexible data management framework built upon Linked Data, HL7 FHIR and ontologies

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Semantic Web Technologies
• Integrated Care Systems

Background:

• Chronic and multimorbid patients require integrated care services.
• Existing telehealth systems often lack flexible and semantically rich data management.
• Standardized data representation is crucial for interoperability in healthcare.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a telehealth data management framework supporting integrated care for chronic and multimorbid patients.
• To demonstrate the framework's ability to manage semantically enriched electronic health record (EHR) data.
• To highlight the framework's flexibility and reusability through a unified ontology approach.

Main Methods:

• Development of an OWL ontology based on HL7 FHIR resources.
• Implementation of a persistent storage solution and communication web services.
• Adherence to Linked Data principles for semantically enriched EHR data representation.
• Utilizing the ontology as a single point of change for flexibility and reusability.

Main Results:

• Successful implementation in the EU WELCOME project for COPD and comorbidity telemonitoring.
• Successful deployment in the INLIFE EU project with minimal adaptation effort.
• Demonstrated validity and integrity of exchanged patient data as self-describing ontology instances.

Conclusions:

• The developed framework provides a flexible and reusable solution for telehealth data management.
• The semantic enrichment of EHR data using ontologies enhances data integration and interoperability.
• The framework shows significant potential for adoption and adaptation in various integrated care scenarios.