Towards a Healthcare Interoperability Framework Based on Medical Business Artifacts, Social Networks, and Communities of Healthcare Professionals

This chapter looks into the challenges facing healthcare Information Systems interoperability from a technological perspective and how to address some of these challenges using three concepts, namely medical artifacts, social networks, and communities. Medical artifacts represent chunks of information that healthcare practitioners act upon and exchange as part of their daily activities. Social networks reflect interactions occurring between these practitioners when performing joint activities. Finally, communities illustrate pockets of expertise capable of collaborating with respect to pre-defined protocols. © 2012, IGI Global