Module CS4361-KP06

Duration

1 Semester

Turnus of offer

each winter semester

Credit points

6

Course of studies, specific fields and terms:

• Master Medical Informatics 2019, compulsory, ehealth / infomatics

Classes and lectures:

• Medical data integration - eHealth (practical course, 1 SWS)
• Medical data integration - eHealth (exercise, 2 SWS)
• Medical data integration - eHealth (lecture, 2 SWS)

Workload:

• 30 hours exam preparation
• 75 hours private studies and exercises
• 75 hours in-classroom work

Contents of teaching:

• Middleware and Information Integration for Distributed Systems in the Healthcare Sector
• Standardized (generic) information models for improved semantic interoperability
• HL7 Version 3: Framework, incl. Generic Reference Information Model (RIM)
• HL7 CDA (Clinical Document Architecture)
• HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources)
• ISO 13606 or openEHR initiative => 2-level approach: reference model and integrable clinical content models (archetypes)
• Further standards, e.g. DICOM SR (images), ISO/IEEE 11073 (medical devices), CDISC (clinical studies), ...
• IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise): Integration Profiles
• Standardized vocabularies: Differentiation of classifications, terminologies, ontologies, etc.
• Unified Medical Language System (UMLS): Terminology servers and services
• Semantic Web Standards: RDF, RDF Schema, OWL, SPARQL, etc.
• Description logics: representation and inference for (formal) ontologies
• Reference terminology in medicine: SNOMED CT
• Other terminologies/ontologies: OBO (bioinformatics), RadLex (radiology), etc.
• Interference of information models and compositional terminologies (TermInfo)

Qualification-goals/Competencies:

• The students can explain the problem of syntactic, structural and semantic heterogeneity in distributed application systems and give examples.
• They can explain the model-based HL7 V3 standard with its static and dynamic model parts, including RIM model and derived models by cloning and constraining.
• They can explain HL7 CDA documents (incl. origin, structure, templates, processing principles, etc.) and edit them using XML-based tools.
• In contrast to HL7 V3, they can explain the alternative HL7 standard and architecture approach HL7 FHIR and implement interoperable applications using corresponding XML resources via REST communication.
• They can see more examples for (domain-dependent) standards with specific information models, templates (constraint mechanisms), vocabularies and identifiers, including ISO 13606 and openEHR (archetypes), ISO/IEEE 11073, DICOM SR, CDISC ...
• They can outline the IHE initiative with integration profiles for the concrete implementation of practice-relevant interoperability, including the role of Connectathons in the allocation of conformance statements.
• Starting from the semiotic triangle, they can differentiate terms (incl. term relations) from terms (incl. term relations) and, together with codes from standardized vocabularies, discuss the relationship to the topic of 'semantic interoperability'.
• They can differentiate (concept-oriented) terminologies or ontologies from (statistical) classifications and thesauri that are based on other order principles and are therefore supplemented by a concept level (e.g. ICD-11).
• They can create and interpret formalizations of content using description-logical constructors, especially taking into account the underlying 'Open World Assumption'.
• They can map these contents using the ontology editor Protégé and evaluate them using a proof system (reasoner).
• They can explain the OWL 2 language profile 'EL' used by SNOMED CT, including the SEP triple approach for modelling partitative conceptual relations.
• As an alternative to A-box deductions with Protégé, they can use a triplestore with RDF facts and OWL concept knowledge and formulate desired conclusions (e.g. drug interactions) using SPARQL queries.
• They can sketch the TermInfo problem, i.e. the overlapping of semantic representation in information models (such as HL7 RIM) and compositional terminologies (such as SNOMED CT).

Grading through:

• Written or oral exam as announced by the examiner

Requires:

• Informatics in Health Care - eHealth (CS3300-KP08, CS3300SJ14)

Responsible for this module:

• Prof. Dr. rer. nat. habil. Heinz Handels

Teacher:

• Institute of Medical Informatics
• Prof. Dr. rer. nat. habil. Sebastian Fudickar

Literature:

• Benson T, Grieve G : Principles of Health Interoperability - SNOMED CT, HL7 and FHIR Third Edition. London: Springer 2016 (ISBN 978-3-319-30370-3)
• Elkin P L. : Terminology and Terminological Systems Springer 2012 (ISBN 978-1-447-12815-1)
• Baader F, et al. : The Description Logic Handbook: Theory, Implementation and Applications 2. aktualisierte Auflage. Cambridge University Press 2010 (ISBN 978-0-521-15011-8)
• Staab S, Studer R. : Handbook on Ontologies Springer 2009 (ISBN 978-3-540-70999-2)

Language:

• German and English skills required

Notes:

Last Updated:

24.07.2025