Ensuring Information Quality
and the Emergence of
Healthcare 2.0 Joe Gollner
Vice President
e-Publishing Solutions
Copyright © Stilo International 2008 Stilo International

Topics
A Little Context
Some Issues with How
Technology is Typically U d
T h l i T i ll Used
The Unique Role of XML
The Importance of Validation
The State of the Art in
Content Validation & Processing
Why this is Important…

John Radcliffe

The Information Revolution and Medicine
The Quack – William Hogarth
from “Marriage à la Mode”
The Early Printing Press Royal College of Physicians

Technology and Healthcare
Primary focus has been on
y
improving the delivery of care
Pharmaceuticals
Medical devices
Diagnostic support
Secondary focus has been
administrative
Patients and staff
Facilities
F iliti
Finance
Persistent health information
Has received less attention...
Points towards larger “domains”

The Perils of Application Orientation
Application Application
Authoring Printing
Application
Printing
Application Application Application
Importing Indexing Viewing

The Nature of Software Applications
Software Applications Applications are tools
pp
share a number of traits that amplify the
skills of people to
Developed to address a enhance performance
Purpose
specific purpose
Predicated on data inputs Application
with predictable structures
and values
Purpose
Guided by “definitive”
algorithms through which
a result can be determined
or
Applications depend on
Strict control Conditions Satisfied
Fixed scope
Limited timeframe

Extensible Markup Language (XML)
Source: Microsoft

XML Filled a Growing Need
Proprietary (controlled) formats
and closed applications could not
deal with growing complexity

XML: an Open Data Format for Open Systems

XML Enables Portable & Persistent Information
XML is only one (
y (essential)
)
part of the solution.
XML alone does not
guarantee portability
portability,
persistence or even XML
usefulness.
Multi-Format
Multi Format
Automatic
Publishing
Authoring ith
A th i with
Structured Markup

The Importance of Validation
The rules governing documents
have grown more sophisticated.
Validity is in the eye of the
consuming application...

The XML Revolution
XML sought more than anything
sought, anything,
to enable content processability
Wellformed XML
primarily f publishing processes
i il for bli hi
Valid XML
for more “data centric” processes
The success of processable XML
sparked a revolution in the way
technology applications are
t h l li ti
designed, developed and
deployed
Adaptable components
Service Oriented Architectures

Schema Protocols
Content
Instance
The Tao of Validation XML Validation Content Verification
The Grand Vision for Content
Management & Processing
Enabling the manufacture
of interchangeable content
components of exacting Transformation
precision and durability Processing
Outputs

Validate & Transform: Simple
Content Validation
Document Type Definition (DTD) structural rules
Instance conformance
Content Transformation
Traditionally focused on arranging content
for publishing formatted products
Supporting primarily
structural manipulation
Validated Outputs
V lid t d O t t
Inputs to rendition processes typically for
PDF outputs
HTML outputs

Schema Rules
Content
Instance
Validate & Transform: Complex Structure Validation Content Verification
Content Validation & Verification
Schema structural rules
Rules governing content values
Instance conformance
Transformation
Processing
Content Transformation
Continuous process of improvement
Parse, validate, align, verify…repeat
Manipulation of many content types
Validated Outputs
Outputs
Inputs to rendition processes
Multiple formatted outputs
M lti l f tt d t t
XML outputs
Data outputs for applications

Content Processing & Validation
Content Processing Model
g
Confirm source
Process content
Confirm output
Report exceptions
Validation
C
Convert
t T
Transform
f P bli h
Publish
Performs confirmations
References rules
Communicates results
Fatal (error) Refactor Collect Compile
Non-fatal (warning)
Relate Resolve
Ideal Situation
Id l Sit ti
Processing & Validation
are closely integrated

The Anatomy of a Complex Content Process
Sources Filter Validator Filter Validator Application
Convert Content Well-Formedness Enhance Markup XML Validity Authoring
Filter Validator
Validator
Split Join
Enrich Metadata Classification Rules
Filter Validator Management Rules
Generate Links Link Verification
Application Application Validator Filter Application
Re-Purposing Exporting Interchange Rules Extract Content Loading

An Inevitable Evolution
As the scope of a “solution domain” expands
solution domain
Content resources must become independent
of any one application
Application l (algorithms)
A li ti rules ( l ith ) must b t become d dynamically adaptable
i ll d t bl
in order to deal with change and variability
XML provides the essential format for both
Content
Rules
This is important for large-scale considerations
Public Health / Emergency Preparedness
Improvement of “Patient Health” as well as specific “T t
I t f “P ti t H lth” ll ifi “Treatments”
t ”
Addressing the growing complexity of the Healthcare enterprise

The Really Good News
There has been 20 years+
experience built up in this field
Best practices continue to
evolve around validating &
processing content
Improving content quality
Addressing technology challenges
The XML revolution around us
Can help facilitate new levels of
coordination across the entire
healthcare enterprise
(Healthcare 2.0)