FHIR-Based Arden Syntax Compiler for Clinical Decision Support

Area of Science:

• Medical Informatics
• Computer Science

Background:

• Arden Syntax is a standard for encoding medical knowledge in clinical decision support systems.
• Health Level 7 (HL7) oversees Arden Syntax evolution.
• Arden Syntax 3.0 integrates FHIR for data retrieval, solving the 'curly braces problem'.

Purpose of the Study:

• Introduce a novel compiler for Arden Syntax 3.0.
• Leverage modern tools like ANTLR and GraalVM's Truffle Framework for development.
• Evaluate the compiler's performance against legacy systems.

Main Methods:

• Developed a new Arden Syntax 3.0 compiler.
• Utilized ANTLR for lexical and parsing analysis.
• Employed GraalVM with Truffle for semantic processing, optimization, and execution.
• Conducted comprehensive testing against a legacy compiler.

Main Results:

• The new compiler demonstrated significant improvements in execution speed.
• Substantial gains in memory efficiency were observed.
• Enhanced code quality, maintainability, and extensibility were achieved.

Conclusions:

• The Truffle-based compiler offers a robust and efficient replacement for legacy Arden Syntax compilers.
• This advancement supports future development of Arden Syntax-based clinical decision support.
• Improved performance and maintainability enhance the user experience.