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The Microsoft Connected Health Framework

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Let me try and paint a picture, let's see if this applies to any of you:

  • I have many portals, mostly provided by the line of business application vendors, that do not talk to each other
  • I can look at the information in the portal, but on order to change it I need to go back to the original application
  • I have multiple applications that do not talk to each other and require duplicate data input or fail to leverage data that is in other systems
  • I want/need to participate in community, regional or national information sharing efforts, but I cannot even have a cohesive information integration strategy within my enterprise
  • I don't have a coherent architecture strategy, but rather a patchwork of siloed applications
  • I'm having trouble integrating multiple applications on multiple platforms and rewiring the workflows based on changing requirements and goals
  • I'm stuck with HL7 v2.x

If you can recognize at least one of the problems, we might have something for you, so keep reading :-)

The main objectives for the Connected Health Framework are:

  • Highlight a series of best practices for service oriented health information and collaboration architecture
  • Enable the development of an ecosystems of solutions developed along these guidelines

The reason why portals today are largely a "look-but-no-touch" experience is because the information you see was pried out of applications that were never meant to support this type of bidirectional interaction. In fact there is usually no way to put the data back in without compromising the integrity of the application's database or totally bypassing the business rules checks provided by the user interface.

Applications built according to modern SOA practices expose services, in addition to user interfaces, that allow for other systems to interact with them at a much deeper level.

The Connected Health Framework discusses how to build these systems to maximize interoperability and composability of services and business components.

In that sense the Connected Health Framework has little to do with the Microsoft platform and I'm sure you'll find great material even if you're 100% Java shop. The point is really about making these services and business components interact with each other on a much more profound basis, regardless of the platform upon which they are built.

The other key point is that you do not need a healthcare-specific architecture to solve healthcare problems. The architecture of your systems should be based on cross industry best practices that transcend the specific vertical. What makes a solution specific to healthcare is the type of messages that are exchanged, the security and policies for authentication, authorization and information access and of course the nature of services and business components.

We've been discussing the Connected Health Framework with customers and partners since early this year. I am happy to announce that the final content is now published for your review and comment:

The documents are hosted on the Solution Sharing Network web site.

We would like to have a broader community input on the material and we'll incorporate that feedback in subsequent releases. So, please share your thoughts on the SolShare.net healthcare forums, I'll be there too.

This was a collective effort from a number of people around the world, both from Microsoft and the industry. I'd like to thank all the people that contributed to releasing the Connected Health Framework Architecture and Design Blueprint and all of you that will spend time putting it to work and making it better.

[Update] The landing page for the Connected Health Framework on microsoft.com is here.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2006
    I'd like to draw your attention to a very thoughtful piece in

  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2006
    I'd like to draw your attention to a very thoughtful piece in HHN Most Wired written by well-known CIO,

  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2006
    really a great job by microsoft

  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2006
    really a great job by microsoft

  • Anonymous
    November 27, 2006
    When I try to open up the PDF, it Adobe generates an error, is it just my install of the reader?

  • Anonymous
    November 27, 2006
    Connected Health Framework CHF

  • Anonymous
    November 27, 2006
    I tried all the PDFs personally and they worked Ok. I suggest right-click and download before opening as they are quite big.

  • Anonymous
    December 20, 2006
    really a great job by microsoft corp.

  • Anonymous
    April 23, 2007
    Un nouveau guide et recueil de bonnes pratiques, spécialisé dans le monde de la santé : le Microsoft

  • Anonymous
    June 01, 2007
    By now the reader of this blog has probably read the corresponding blog from Roberto Ruggeri in the Microsoft

  • Anonymous
    August 08, 2007
    My colleague David Dembo, our Health and Human Services Industry Manager, is just about to give a presentation

  • Anonymous
    December 16, 2007
    I'd like to draw your attention to a very thoughtful piece in

  • Anonymous
    October 21, 2010
    Nice Blog!!! Thanks For Great Information

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    March 30, 2012
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