Project Scope and deliverables
The project aims to support selection of a canonical gold standard for only the US Core Data for Interoperability and the SNOMED CT International Patient Summary sub-ontology. Analysis and selection of the exact version of both FHIR IGs representing the core, in-scope data elements and OMOP target CDM will ensue. The question of which version(s) of the available FHIR implementation guides (IGs) would be followed, and in what sequence additionally will be determined. An overlap / gap analysis of the US Core and IPS elements will be conducted, which will simplify map evaluation and curation work in the iterative cycles planned. The content focus for each iterative work cycle will be based upon dividing up the core data classes, or domains into groups. Each content group will be assembled, examined and any gap mapping curated in a serial fashion. In this way the core content processing is broken-up into repeating cycles. An evaluation of the options for publication of the project work products will be conducted, and one or more publishing mechanisms will be selected that maximize both available production resources and reach to the broader OMOP & HL7 communities.

To support analysis of prior work, a standard format will be developed to which prior map artifacts will be transformed. By utilizing this standard format, many map artifacts for a single common data element in scope can be compared across source projects. In addition to mapping content alignment, available tools which perform data comparisons (or “diffs”) will be leveraged to support our analyses. Once analysis of available prior work for a class of data elements is complete, the best approach for mapping each data element will be selected from prior work, or curated based on consensus or criteria developed by the project team. These examples of “best practice” maps will be collated for testing / review and publication.

This proposal will be more sophisticated terminologically than prior IG activities, because the context / intellectual effort required to develop maps used in IGs will be preserved with the maps themselves. Thus, we hope to raise and establish a new “gold standard” for transformation artifacts and maps. Aligned with the HL7 publication process, cycles will include Connectathon validation activities for the “gold standard” content identified in each cycle by the project team. Testing and evaluation configuration scenarios and the supporting Connectathon infrastructure will be developed as a component of the initial project cycle. Issues surfaced as a result of Connectathon activities will be addressed in the subsequent development cycle.