Integrating information systems in medicine: a reference model for middleware

This paper addresses the problem of integrating healthcare information systems, from a technological viewpoint. We propose to take the concept of an ¿integration service' as an elementary concept in discussing the problem of integration. We then propose a taxonomy for grouping integration services according to their functionality and their domain specificity. The use of this taxonomy for decomposing an integration problem into (less complex) sub-problems is demonstrated. Finally, a sequence of steps to be taken in solving an integration problem is discussed.