Interoperability Of Information Systems Research Articles

An Event-Driven Platform for Agility Management of Crisis Response

This article aims at presenting a whole approach of Information System Interoperability management in a crisis management cell: a Mediation Information System (MIS) may be used to help the crisis cell partners to design, run and manage the workflows of the response to a crisis situation. The architecture of the MIS meets the needs of low coupling between the partners' Information System components and the need of agility for such a platform. It is based on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Event-Driven Architecture (EDA) principles that are combined to the Complex Event Processing (CEP) principles. This should leads on the one hand to an easier orchestration, choreography and real-time monitoring of the workflows' activities, on the other hand to assume on-the-fly automated agility of the crisis response (considering agility as the ability of the processes to remain consistent with the response to the crisis).

IFPortal

The search for better and more adequate levels of government information systems interoperability led many governments all over the world to develop, adopt and publish what is known as e-government interoperability frameworks – documents that specify a set of common elements such as vocabularies, concepts, principles, policies, guidelines, recommendations, standards, and practices for agencies that wish to work together, towards the joint delivery of public services. The central purpose of this paper is to present a detailed description of a portal — IFPortal — that could provide a simple and appropriate way to aggregate, analyze, compare, and display information about e-government interoperability frameworks. Such a portal will enable the registration, search, visualization, analysis, and comparison of interoperability frameworks' content, structure and scope, thus allowing for the identification of similarities and differences among them. An IFPortal prototype, already developed, is also presented and may be accessed in order to exemplify the IFPortal concept.

Semantic issues in model-driven management of information system interoperability

The Mediation Information System Engineering (MISE Project) aims at providing collaborating organisations with a mediation information system (MIS) in charge of supporting interoperability of a collaborative network. The MISE proposes an overall MIS design method according to a model-driven approach, based on model transformations. This MIS is in charge of managing (i) information, (ii) functions and (iii) processes among the information systems (IS) of partner organisations involved in the network. Semantic issues are accompanying this triple objective: How to deal with information reconciliation? How to ensure the matching between business functions and technical services? How to identify workflows among business processes? This article aims first at presenting the MISE approach, second at defining the semantic gaps along the MISE approach and third at describing some past, current and future research works that deal with these issues. Finally and as a conclusion, the very ‘design-oriented’ previous considerations are confronted with 'runtime' requirements.

Architecture for Health Information Systems Interoperability in Africa

Background and Purpose: Africa has seen a steady increase in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems deployed in health care institutions. This uncoordinated mass migration to electronic health information systems in Africa has created an heterogeneous and complex computing environment where most of the deployed systems have technologies that are local, proprietary and insular. Furthermore, the infrastructure in Africa to facilitate the electronic exchange of information has a number of constraints. The infrastructure connectivity on which applications run is still segmented. Most parts of Africa lack the availability of a reliable connectivity infrastructure. In some cases, there is no connectivity at all. The realities of interoperability and re-usability problems have started to become more prominent in Africa as more systems are developed and deployed. It is not practical to either discard the existing systems or have only one system in place to solve this problem. The standards development work of the ISO TC 215 will have a major impact on the applications deployed across the continent once completed. Some African countries sit on these committees and it is important that the developers of architectures that will be deployed in Africa keep an eye on the work being done by the working groups of the TC 215. Another important aspect particular to an African environment is the connectivity issue. One has to be aware of the fact that the connections between the different systems are unreliable and subject to high segmentation levels. Architectures deployed need to be able to operate in a disconnected environment. Thirdly, technologies, particularly programming languages used to develop systems, need to be based on what the teaching industry, colleges and universities is providing to students in Africa. The core purpose of this work is interoperability of various IT assets in and outside a health institution and the connectivity of IT systems in the face of unreliable connectivity infrastructure in Africa. The goal of this research was to produce an outcome that can be generalised and applied to other cases in Africa. Methods: To solve the problem described above required the building of an artefact using specific software engineering methods. What systems that are in use today need, in additional to other standards issues, is an upgrade in order to expose them as web services and make them part of a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), based on web services. Results: The three main theoretical contributions are a SOA Driven Disconnected Architecture (SOA-DDA), Runtime Dynamic Routing (RDR), and a methodology to enhance an application for future interoperability. The key practical contribution is an Application Programming Interface (API) design based on the Health Level 7 Reference Information Model (HL7 RIM) that is able to not only deal with the mediation or interoperability issues, but also operate in an unreliable connectivity environment and adjust to the ever changing and evolving health care standards. The API exposes REST based web services to the consumers of the services. It can be used to build systems from the ground up. It was constructed using rigorous documented processes to produce constructs, models, methods and an instantiation. Conclusions: The framework developed takes care of all the issues that need to be addressed in order to build a workable system. Keywords: Architecture, Interoperability, Distributed Computing, Web Services, Health Information Systems

Lab Information System Interoperability: True Target or Windmill?

Lab Information System Interoperability: True Target or Windmill?

Information modelling in water resources: an Australian perspective

In water resources there is an increasing demand for interoperable data and information systems to provide people and software agents seamless access to multiple relevant data sources. Information and data modelling, with associated standards, controlled vocabularies and ontologies provide the key components in overcoming the syntactic and semantic challenges of interoperability. When combined with metadata registries and data services these components allow users to search and find data and information through structured approaches, and to access and obtain these for a range of end uses. This paper describes the concepts and fundamental components required for successful use of information modelling, including the work in Australia led by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Bureau of Meteorology to develop and apply information modelling to the problems of interoperability for Australian water resources information systems. These initiatives are delivering tools and methods that support the long term maintenance of information models as they evolve to meet new needs and expanded requirements. The investigation reveals that we have a strong conceptual framework along with rapidly maturing methods and tools, suggesting that we are at the forefront of a new generation of water resources data and information access and interoperability.

Ingénierie dirigée par les modèles : quels supports à l'interopérabilité des systèmes d'information ?

Information systems are more and more often based on aggregation of other systems that must be maintained and evolved in an agile way and without un- controlled entropy. This is not without interoperability problems! Among others, the aim of Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) is to provide solutions for interoperability issues between systems. This paper summarizes thoughts that have come up from the specific action Interoperability of information systems and model-driven engineering: What challenges? What solutions? supported by inforsid. We propose a summary of approaches that are based on MDE and knowledge engineering and that tackle in- teroperability issues in the industry. Open questions and limitations that raised during the meetings are also reported.

Integrated Personal Health and Care Services deployment: Experiences in eight European countries

ObjectivesThe deployment and adoption of Integrated Personal Health and Care Services in Europe has been slow and fragmented. There have been many initiatives and projects of this kind in different European regions, many of which have not gone beyond the pilot stage. We investigated the necessary conditions for mainstreaming these services into care provision. MethodsWe conducted a qualitative analysis of 27 Telehealth, Telecare and Integrated Personal Health System projects, implemented across 20 regions in eight European countries. The analysis was based on Suter's ten key principles for successful health systems integration. ResultsOut of the 27 cases, we focussed on 11 which continued beyond the pilot stage. The key facilitators that are necessary for successful deployment and adoption in the European regions of our study are reorganisation of services, patient focus, governance mechanisms, interoperable information systems, policy commitment, engaged professionals, national investments and funding programmes, and incentives and financing. ConclusionIn those cases which provided evidence of success beyond the pilot stage, we observed a promising trend: awareness and introduction of Integrated Personal Health and Care Services in European regions has increased. Further research will reveal the weight of each facilitator and which combinations of facilitators lead to rapid adoption.

An empirical investigation of information systems interoperability business value in European firms

It is widely believed that the establishment of interoperability of the information systems (IS) of a firm with those of its collaborators (e.g. customers, suppliers, and business partners) can generate significant business value. However, this has been empirically investigated only to a very limited extent. This paper contributes to filling this research gap by presenting an empirical study of the effect of adopting the three main types of IS interoperability standards (industry-specific, proprietary and XML-based ones) on the four important perspectives/dimensions of business performance proposed by the balanced scorecard approach (financial, customers, internal business processes, learning and innovation). Our study is based on a large dataset from 14,065 European firms (from 25 countries and 10 sectors) collected through the e-Business Watch Survey of the European Commission. It is concluded that all three examined types of IS interoperability standards increase considerably the positive impact of firm's information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure on the above four perspectives/dimensions of business performance; however, their effects differ significantly. The adoption of industry-specific interoperability standards has the highest positive effects, while XML-based and proprietary standards have similar lower positive effects. Furthermore, these effects of the industry-specific IS interoperability standards are quite strong, as they are of similar magnitude with the corresponding effects of the degree of development of firm's intra-organizational/internal IS, and of higher magnitude than the corresponding effects of the degree of development of firm's e-sales IS. These conclusions provide valuable empirical evidence of the multidimensional business value generated by IS interoperability, its big magnitude and its strong dependence on the type of IS interoperability standards adopted.

Improving Collaboration between Public Health and Family Health Teams in Ontario

To identify and explore areas where responsibilities may overlap between family health teams (FHTs) and public health units (PHUs); to identify facilitators or barriers to collaboration; and to identify priority areas for increased collaboration. DESIGN AND CONTEXT: Cross-sectional mixed-methods study of FHTs and PHUs in Ontario, Canada, consisting of a postal survey, key informant interviews and a roundtable meeting. The survey response rate was 46%. Direct client-based services such as giving immunizations, promoting prenatal health and nutrition, and counselling related to smoking cessation were identified as the top three areas of perceived overlap. The greatest interest in collaboration was expressed in the areas of emergency planning and preparedness, immunization, and prenatal health and nutrition. Good communication with a clear understanding of roles and functions was the most important facilitator, and lack of resources and absence of a clear provincial mandate and direction to collaborate were identified as significant barriers. Small, simple client-based projects of interest to both kinds of organization would be the best way to move forward in the short term. Improving communication between FHTs and PHUs, understanding of roles and functions, the use of shared or interoperable information systems and greater clarity from government on the ways in which these two key sectors of the healthcare system are intended to work together were identified as important for the success of increased collaboration.

Improving the interoperability of industrial information systems with description logic-based models—The state of the art

Semantic technologies that have arisen with web development have brought out new tools, concepts, and methodologies which are increasingly employed in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) applications. This paper proposes a literature review of papers related to ontologies in the area of product lifecycle management. However, it only focuses on inference ontologies, i.e. ontologies that enable reasoning, for instance, models expressed in the Web Ontology Language (OWL). The goals of this paper are to explore the field of such applications, to figure out the advantages of inference ontologies in a PLM context and to synthesize major existing inference models in terms of methodology and structuration. Finally, this paper proposes several research perspectives.

Ontology alignment for networked enterprise information system interoperability in supply chain environment

Supply chain interactions are complex in general and can be viewed as a networked enterprise. In this paper, we address information system interoperability for exploring and analysing the interoperation problem in heterogeneous networked enterprise systems. We propose a common shared ontology-based framework for networked enterprise interoperability for the context of information flows in supply chain interactions. A supply chain ontology, supply chain operations reference (SCOR) ontology, is developed based on the SCOR model. Subsequently, by formalising the similar concepts of SCOR ontology and product ontology, ONTO-PDM, using description logic, we propose a product-centric supply chain ontology framework for facilitating the interoperation between all enterprise applications involved in an extended supply chain. A case study of a supply chain make-to-order process is used to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach.

The Electronic Health Record and its Contribution to Healthcare Information Systems Interoperability

One of the main advantages of using computational systems in the health care activity comes from their ability to provide useful information for decision making to health professionals. Thus, their main purpose is to increment the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery. In order to achieve these purposes, Health Information Systems must fulfill interoperability standards, quality, security, scalability, reliability and timeliness in data storage and processing terms. One of the main existing problems in this area is the fact that informatics applications do not share information, or share it in a very low level. When communication between different Health Information Systems exists, it is mainly achieved through proprietary integration solutions. In this paper is made a survey of the main advantages of Electronic Health Records and presented a proposal of some general guidelines for building them and promote the integration of different information resources.

Content-Based Management Service for Medical Videos

Development of health information technology has had a dramatic impact to improve the efficiency and quality of medical care. Developing interoperable health information systems for healthcare providers has the potential to improve the quality and equitability of patient-centered healthcare. In this article, we describe an automated content-based medical video analysis and management service that provides convenience and ease in accessing the relevant medical video content without sequential scanning. The system facilitates effective temporal video segmentation and content-based visual information retrieval that enable a more reliable understanding of medical video content. The system is implemented as a Web- and mobile-based service and has the potential to offer a knowledge-sharing platform for the purpose of efficient medical video content access.

Interoperability in Information Systems in the Furtherance of Trade

This is one of three in-depth exploratory studies, which aim to gain a deeper understanding of the role that interoperability plays as an enabler of innovation and creativity in international trade. Each study explores the various institutions, policies and approaches that shape the interoperability landscape and investigates the effects of these factors and drivers on trade in the globalized economy. In this series, we examine: (i) to what extent and how interoperability has contributed to the promotion of international trade; (ii) what respective roles international organizations have played in concert with other stakeholders with regard to interoperability and international trade; (iii) what policies and approaches to supporting interoperability have been used, and with what results; and (iv) what can be learned from these experiences with regard to emerging interoperability issues in the context of international trade. The three studies address this set of questions from different angles, acknowledging the multi-faceted character of the concept of interoperability (Gasser & Palfrey, Basic Books 2012). Two of them – “Fostering innovation and trade in the global information society: The different facets and roles of interoperability”, and “Mapping Cloud Interoperability in the Globalized Economy: Theory and Observations from Practice” – focus specifically on cloud computing, an emerging technical paradigm through which to analyze the policy relevance of interoperability in a globalized economy. This example also facilitates exploration of some of the key issues and practical challenges that arise as various stakeholders engage with cloud services, infrastructure, and data across the world, as well as the implications for trade, policy, and different actors, especially, governments. The third study, “Interoperability in Information and Information Systems in the Furtherance of Trade” is focused on the role, current debates, and associated benefits and challenges in establishing a system of interoperability for information and information systems in the service of trade in a global economy over time.

Mapping Cloud Interoperability in the Globalized Economy: Theory and Observation from Practice

This is one of three in-depth exploratory studies, which aim to gain a deeper understanding of the role that interoperability plays as an enabler of innovation and creativity in international trade. Each study explores the various institutions, policies and approaches that shape the interoperability landscape and investigates the effects of these factors and drivers on trade in the globalized economy. In this series, we examine: (i) to what extent and how interoperability has contributed to the promotion of international trade; (ii) what respective roles international organizations have played in concert with other stakeholders with regard to interoperability and international trade; (iii) what policies and approaches to supporting interoperability have been used, and with what results; and (iv) what can be learned from these experiences with regard to emerging interoperability issues in the context of international trade. The three studies address this set of questions from different angles, acknowledging the multi-faceted character of the concept of interoperability (Gasser & Palfrey, Basic Books 2012). Two of them “Fostering innovation and trade in the global information society: The different facets and roles of interoperability”, and “Mapping Cloud Interoperability in the Globalized Economy: Theory and Observations from Practice” – focus specifically on cloud computing, an emerging technical paradigm through which to analyze the policy relevance of interoperability in a globalized economy. This example also facilitates exploration of some of the key issues and practical challenges that arise as various stakeholders engage with cloud services, infrastructure, and data across the world, as well as the implications for trade, policy, and different actors, especially, governments. The third study, “Interoperability in Information and Information Systems in the Furtherance of Trade” is focused on the role, current debates, and associated benefits and challenges in establishing a system of interoperability for information and information systems in the service of trade in a global economy over time.

Applying a framework for assessing the health system challenges to scaling up mHealth in South Africa

BackgroundMobile phone technology has demonstrated the potential to improve health service delivery, but there is little guidance to inform decisions about acquiring and implementing mHealth technology at scale in health systems. Using the case of community-based health services (CBS) in South Africa, we apply a framework to appraise the opportunities and challenges to effective implementation of mHealth at scale in health systems.MethodsA qualitative study reviewed the benefits and challenges of mHealth in community-based services in South Africa, through a combination of key informant interviews, site visits to local projects and document reviews. Using a framework adapted from three approaches to reviewing sustainable information and communication technology (ICT), the lessons from local experience and elsewhere formed the basis of a wider consideration of scale up challenges in South Africa.ResultsFour key system dimensions were identified and assessed: government stewardship and the organisational, technological and financial systems. In South Africa, the opportunities for successful implementation of mHealth include the high prevalence of mobile phones, a supportive policy environment for eHealth, successful use of mHealth for CBS in a number of projects and a well-developed ICT industry. However there are weaknesses in other key health systems areas such as organisational culture and capacity for using health information for management, and the poor availability and use of ICT in primary health care. The technological challenges include the complexity of ensuring interoperability and integration of information systems and securing privacy of information. Finally, there are the challenges of sustainable financing required for large scale use of mobile phone technology in resource limited settings.ConclusionAgainst a background of a health system with a weak ICT environment and limited implementation capacity, it remains uncertain that the potential benefits of mHealth for CBS would be retained with immediate large-scale implementation. Applying a health systems framework facilitated a systematic appraisal of potential challenges to scaling up mHealth for CBS in South Africa and may be useful for policy and practice decision-making in other low- and middle-income settings.

Türkiye’de Kültürel Bellek Kurumlarındaki Dijitalleştirme Çalışmalarının Düşünce Özgürlüğü Bağlamında Değerlendirilmesi

Toplumların gelişimini doğrudan etkileyen düşünce özgürlüğü, düşünce ürünlerinin serbest bir şekilde kullanılması ve bu ürünlerden çağın koşullarına uygun şekilde yararlanılmasını gerektirmektedir. Dijitalleştirme çalışmaları, düşünce ürünlerinin gelecek kuşaklara aktarılmasında yeni bilgi teknolojileriyle bütünleştirilmesini ve bu ürünlerin daha uzun süreli korunmasını sağlamaktadır. Bu nokta özellikle kütüphaneler, arşivler, müzeler gibi kültürel bellek kurumlarını ön plana çıkarmaktadır. Araştırmada, dijitalleştirme çalışmalarının düşünce özgürlüğü için bir araç olduğundan hareketle Türkiye’deki dijitalleştirme çalışmalarında bulunan ve kültürel bellek kurumu olma özelliği taşıyan 11 kurum, geliştirilen bir denetim listesi aracılığıyla değerlendirilmektedir. Yapılan değerlendirmelerde, söz konusu kurumların dijitalleştirme çalışmalarındaki amaçları, verdikleri hizmetler, konuyla ilgili algıları ve düşünce özgürlüğü bağlamındaki uygulamaları, çalışmada geliştirilen kuramsal model çerçevesinde ele alınmaktadır. Çalışma sonuçları, dijitalleştirme konusunda Türkiye’de yapılan çalışmalarda kurumların bilgi kaynaklarına yönelik “koruma” kavramını öne çıkardıklarını, dijitalleştirilen materyallere yönelik erişim kısıtlamalarının olduğunu, telif haklarına ve materyallerin tanımlanmasına yönelik farklı uygulamaların gerçekleştirildiğini ortaya koymuştur. Çalışmada, ayrıca, dijitalleştirilen materyallere yönelik hizmetlerin düşünce özgürlüğü kapsamında yeniden değerlendirilmesi gerektiği; telif hakları, eserlerin standart bir yapıda tanımlanması, verilen hizmetler ve konuyla ilgili farkındalık yaratma konularında politikaların ve yol haritalarının geliştirilmesi gerektiği önerilmiştir.

The Information Systems Interoperability Maturity Model (ISIMM): Towards Standardizing Technical Interoperability and Assessment within Government

To establish and implement a workable e-Government, all possible and relevant stakeholders' systems need to be inter-connected in such away that the hardware, software and data are interoperable. Thus, interoperability is the key to information exchange and sharing among the heterogeneous systems. In view of this, the paper introduces the Information Systems Interoperability Maturity Model (ISIMM) that defines the levels and degree of interoperability sophistication that an organisation's Information Systems will progress through. ISIMM focuses more on detailed technical aspects of interoperability that allows data to be exchanged and shared within an information system environment. In this way, it provides the practical means of assessing technical interoperability between information system pairs, groups or clusters and it facilitates a model to measure the maturity and compliancy levels of interoperability information systems.

Data Integration Middleware for Military Environment

Abstract Middleware for integration of applications have to be the principle pillar in the architecture of interoperable information systems that processes data in the heterogeneous military network environment. The proposed integration middleware — the Unified Adaptive Application Interface (UNIE) Integration Broker — as the basic integration and interoperability element of military systems, shall provide an adaptive interconnection with the heterogeneous network environment (HNE), based on the unified data and information base (UDIB). Keywords: Data integration, middleware, military, network centric.