[FOSS_health] summary - next step

[Lee Seldon]

Thanks for the useful feedback. Here is the next version of a very very
short summary:
What type of interoperability do we want / can we achieve?
   - FOSS should probably aim for 'functional' interoperability, but
might have to start with a 'basic' one.
Can we agree on a message format?
   - communications should preferably be based on XML, not on HL7 v2.x.

What next?
There are several options. It would be very useful if somebody (with
time and/or knowledge) could write up a comparison, or point us to an
existing one. Something like (and we can improve on this)

     How it | Features | How to    | Standards  | Advantages | Disad-
     works  |          | implement | compliance |            | vantages
---------------------------------------------------------------------
CCR
HL7 CDA
HL7 CCD
HL7 v3 msg
MIRTH
CORBAmed
HSSP
HDTF
COAS
www.tolven.org
other suggestions
??

(I don't know if everybody watching this list has HTML email displays. 
That reminds me, is anybody from openMRS watching? They should be 
playing a role.)

It would be good if we all understood all of the possibilities before
trying to agree on one. There are some which I do not yet understand.

Licence fees might come under Standards Compliance or Disadvantages. 
E.g., I bought a CCR licence (copy of the xsd file), but I don't 
remember if I am allowed to distribute it further. Ditto for SNOMED-CT 
(which I am only allowed to use for research). On general principles I 
personally would try to avoid anything which is not free or not 
available in developing countries. (That leaves vocabularies ICPC2, 
LOINC, UMLS ...)

It seems to me that everybody will have to make a mapping at some point,
unless your data structure already fits a standard, or unless all 
recipients have the same data structure.
Lee