Structure
Information flows throughout the NHS, within and between organisations. At different stages it changes structure and form. For example, it is changed by the doctor interacting with the patient, when it is entered and stored in a PAS and again when transmitted to a departmental system. In order to be effective, an information standard must define its place in the end to end view. It does not mean that the standard must cover the entire end to end process, but it must understand its place. The diagram below seeks to indicate the breadth of this area.
When defining a standard it is possible to break down the end to end process into specific components. These are described below. A good standard will consider each area in turn.
|
Group |
Component | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Business Inputs | Clinical and administrative definitions | Definitive description of physical items and concepts, e.g. definition of myocardial infarction or ward. |
| Clinical and administrative best practice |
|
|
| Standard Definition | Requirements | Detailed description of the requirements the information standard will fulfil. |
| Business process model | UML model of the business process. This includes any business rules and workflow. | |
| User interface design | Includes graphical user interfaces, printed reports and other interaction mechanisms. | |
| Database design | Logical data model for clinical record database. | |
| System interface design | Logical and physical interface model. | |
| Secondary uses design | Defines secondary uses reporting requirements, including indicators and other national collections. | |
| Supporting Information | Reference data | Data external to the standard that is integral to its delivery, e.g. ODS codes, SNOMED CT subsets. |
| Training materials | ||
| Examples |
