Abstract
Background FAIR Guiding Principles present a synergy with the use cases for digital health records,
in that clinical data need to be found, accessible within a range of environments,
and data must interoperate between systems and subsequently reused. The use of HL7
FHIR, openEHR, IHE XDS, and SNOMED CT (FOXS) together represents a specification to
create an open digital health platform for modern health care applications.
Objectives To describe where logical FOXS components align to the European Open Science Cloud
Interoperability Framework (EOSC-IF) reference architecture for semantic interoperability.
This should provide a means of defining if FOXS aligns to FAIR principles and to establish
the data models and structures that support longitudinal care records as being fit
to underpin scientific research.
Methods The EOSC-IF Semantic View is a representation of semantic interoperability where
meaning is preserved between systems and users. This was analyzed and cross-referenced
with FOXS architectural components, mapping concepts, and objects that describe content
such as catalogues and semantic artifacts.
Results Majority of conceptual Semantic View components were featured within the FOXS architecture.
Semantic Business Objects are composed of a range of elements such as openEHR archetypes
and templates, FHIR resources and profiles, SNOMED CT concepts, and XDS document identifiers.
Semantic Functional Content comprises catalogues of metadata that were also supported
by openEHR and FHIR tools.
Conclusions Despite some elements of EOSC-IF being vague (e.g., FAIR Digital Object), there was
a broad conformance to the framework concepts and the components of a FOXS platform.
This work supports a health-domain-specific view of semantic interoperability and
how this may be achieved to support FAIR data for health research via a standardized
framework.
Keywords
semantic interoperability - HL7 FHIR - IHE XDS - SNOMED CT - openEHR
