August 24-25, 2006, Cologne, Germany
| International HL7 Interoperability Conference IHIC 2006
August 24-25, 2006, Cologne, Germany |
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To the IHIC 2006 conference program committee
Email: imf29@uow.edu.au
Isobel Frean, HL7 UK
Flat 3 Knights Place
St Leonards Road
Windsor, Berkshire
SL4 3LE, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1753 730977
M: +44 (0)7856 112 999
imf29@uow.edu.au
Strengthening the HL7 Development Framework methodology: recommendations for validating user requirements.
research
20-30 mins
This paper will draw upon experiences from research undertaken in Australia to argue for the need for a process for validating user-requirements in the Health Level Seven (HL7) Development Framework (HDF).
This paper will draw upon experiences from research undertaken in Australia to argue for the need for a process for validating user-requirements in the Health Level Seven (HL7) Development Framework (HDF).
The HDF methodology was employed to inform the development of aged care requirements and the specification of these using HL7 RIM artifacts as part of a research project to model communication requirements in aged care (health and social care for older people). Three large voluntary sector organisations in NSW partnered with the University of Wollongong to develop a comprehensive set of business requirements, including a business vision for interoperability in aged care, 65 use cases and 29 storyboards (9 of which are published in the HL7 V3 Patient Care standard). These requirements in turn informed the development of a domain analysis model, the elements of which were harmonised against the HL7 RIM.
Whilst the HDF places heavy emphasis on the importance of ensuring that the needs of domain experts are accurately captured in a project charter, it is silent on how these needs might be collected and importantly verified. The methodology used by this research employed a two pronged Delphi approach, one involving business vision consultations with senior managers and the other involving use case consultations with clinicians and care workers, to describe respectively a project charter and detailed business processes required to address the charter.
The paper will examine the suitability of the Delphi approach for validation of requirements-gathering and potential incorporation into the HDF. Practical and useful methods for validating requirements will be proposed which will give an objective basis for technical committees to determine the validity of requirements for inclusion in future iterations of standards.
A process for how validated requirements might be made available to any domain stakeholder, including vendors, policy developers for review and updating will also be proposed.