Seems to me that signs of more Standard Bodies are coming together to provide a unified framework. SOA Consortium and SOA and Object Management Group, two IT consortium, will join Health Level Seven (HL7) in sponsoring a conference designed to focus on using service oriented architecture (SOA) in healthcare. (read full article here).
“SOA is an application architecture that creates interfaces via a series of repeatable tasks or processes. The interfaces are platform independent and can coexist with processes already working within an application. In healthcare, SOA may improve system flexibility and optimize workflows throughout the enterprise.”
Having read that post, I ponder for a while on Microsoft Connected Health Framework.
Utilising SOA, systems deployed using this set of guidelines would employ a common architecture that is based on industry best practices and modern design techniques. Simply put, its promoting greater inter-connectivity and integration through an open-standards approach.
The current practice of building ‘workaround solutions’ upon ‘workaround solutions’ is cause nothing but endless headaches (but I must admit, I’ve seen some really clever hacks) and I think its time for it to end. Having said that, there will always be minor glitches and areas of connectivity not covered due to the constant evolving nature of the IT industry.
Still, lets see what SOA will do for healthcare.
BinaryHealthCare (BNHC) 
More good readings on SOA and HL7, take some time to read this article “SOA, HL7 create seamless health IT interoperability”
http://www.healthimaging.com/index.php?option=himss08§ionid=25&catid=164&Itemid=179&article=9895
In this article, top five business and IT business needs that enterprises look to address with SOA were outlined.
The business benefits include:
– the ability to react quickly to changes in market dynamics;
– providing intra- and inter-company business dynamics, models and processes;
– obtaining real-time information to make decisions;
– responding to customer service initiatives; and
– responding to new and evolving regulatory requirements.
The IT benefits include:
– more flexible architecture;
– integration to existing applications;
– data integration;
– service integration; and
– composite application development.
Seems like the holy grail in interoperability, I’m waiting to see if it really works.