# Exchanging data

**URL:** <https://discourse.openehr.org/t/exchanging-data/15607>\
**Category:** Technical (archive)\
**Created:** [15 October 2013 07:01 UTC](https://discourse.openehr.org/t/exchanging-data/15607 "2013-10-15T07:01:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jasna\_Dugalic](https://discourse.openehr.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/94ad74/32.png) [@Jasna\_Dugalic](https://discourse.openehr.org/u/Jasna_Dugalic)\
**Post date:** [15 October 2013 07:01 UTC](https://discourse.openehr.org/t/exchanging-data/15607/1 "2013-10-15T07:01:36Z")

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Hello,

I’m new to this list and in openEHR. I studied openEHR pdfs about adl, aom, em etc., watched Tomas Beal’s adl tutorial on youtube. I partial understand openEHR but I have big holes between those parts, so I hope someone will answer my questions because I am not sure that I am going the right way.

I managed to get the TDD, but I am not sure if the purpose of TDD is exchanging or something else.

How to exchange data between two OpenEHR systems and between systems in which one of them is not an openEHR?

Thank you in advance,

Jasna.

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**Author:** ![Miroslav\_Koncar](https://discourse.openehr.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@Miroslav\_Koncar](https://discourse.openehr.org/u/Miroslav_Koncar)\
**Post date:** [15 October 2013 09:15 UTC](https://discourse.openehr.org/t/exchanging-data/15607/2 "2013-10-15T09:15:52Z")

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Jasna,

pozdrav, vidim da ste na listi, dobrodosli 🙂 Nisam znao da In2 gleda u openEHR metodologiju, pozdravljam, mislim da je to nesto sto ce bitno promijeniti trziste u slijedecih 3-5 godina.

Pravi odgovor na vase pitanje je - stylesheet transformation. Sustav koji ne podrzava openEHR archetypes and reference model, ako zeli slati podatke u openEHR enabled system, treba imati izmedju sebe transformaciju podataka iz cega god radi u openEHR, ADL. Ako pak imate dva sustava koji su openEHR kompatibilni, onda je stvar puno laksa, jer formalizam osigurava verzioniranje archetypes, odnosno oba kroz templates metodologiju samo rade constraining of existing archetypes. U oba slucaja, jednom kada imate templates and forms u XML-u, nacin na koji cete komunicirati podatke je kroz IHE infrastrukturu, odnosno CDA external references.

Kljucni benefit zapravo sjedi na openEHR clinical data repositoriju, koji ce onda osigurati semanticku interoperabilnost, ontologiju i technology neutral repozitorij podataka.

Svakako dodjite na ISHEP - [www.ishep.org](http://www.ishep.org). Imat cemo posebnu radionicu oko ovoga, u sklopu PARENT project workshop-a.

LP  
Miroslav

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**Author:** ![Domingo\_Liotta](https://discourse.openehr.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/cdc98d/32.png) [@Domingo\_Liotta](https://discourse.openehr.org/u/Domingo_Liotta)\
**Post date:** [15 October 2013 09:24 UTC](https://discourse.openehr.org/t/exchanging-data/15607/3 "2013-10-15T09:24:55Z")

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Im a bit like Jasna myself

Please explain in english Miroslav

Dr. Domingo Liotta (h)  
Enviado desde Samsung Mobile

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**Author:** ![system](https://discourse.openehr.org/uploads/default/original/2X/f/f0a1dedb20c42747bddcafd6c7df9db5f34f003c.svg) [@system](https://discourse.openehr.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [15 October 2013 10:45 UTC](https://discourse.openehr.org/t/exchanging-data/15607/4 "2013-10-15T10:45:56Z")

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Pozdrav i iz Slovenije!

Kod nas je OpenEHR prilično daleko dogurao. Osobno sam ga upotrijebljivao  
na nacionalnom eZdravje projektu te nekoliko ostalih projekata (znam da se  
PARENT isto tako pokušava osloniti na OpenEHR). Kako je več bilo rečeno,  
potreban je OpenEHR server u koji se pohranivaju podatci zajedno za  
arhetipima. Sa upotrebom nekog query jezika (npr. AQL ili XPATH/XQUERY)  
dobiva se podatke, koje se može onda upotrijebiti npr. za CDA dokumente.  
Isto tako u kontra smijeru, radi se transformacija iz npr. CDA u OpenEHR  
pomoču XSLT. Postoje več nekoliko open source projekata, koji služe kao  
OpenEHR repozitorij i kao framework za izgradnju aplikacija iznad tog  
repozitorija.

LP,Mate

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**Author:** ![system](https://discourse.openehr.org/uploads/default/original/2X/f/f0a1dedb20c42747bddcafd6c7df9db5f34f003c.svg) [@system](https://discourse.openehr.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [15 October 2013 10:53 UTC](https://discourse.openehr.org/t/exchanging-data/15607/5 "2013-10-15T10:53:59Z")

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Hi Mate and Miroslav,

it would be nice if you could write in English so that others have a chance to understand your conversation.

Thanks and have a good day,

Birger

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**Author:** ![system](https://discourse.openehr.org/uploads/default/original/2X/f/f0a1dedb20c42747bddcafd6c7df9db5f34f003c.svg) [@system](https://discourse.openehr.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [15 October 2013 11:13 UTC](https://discourse.openehr.org/t/exchanging-data/15607/6 "2013-10-15T11:13:21Z")

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Hi from Slovenia!

We’ve been able to use OpenEHR on many levels. This includes the national eHealth project, a research project (eCare) where an OpenEHR based platform for development of new behavior change interventions was developed and used for a year in controlled clinical trials (the interventions were tested), also while working for the epSOS project and for defining our national EHR “content modules”, we used OpenEHR archetypes and templates.  
To use OpenEHR you need an OpenEHR repository where both the archetypes and data are stored (e.g. in a form of xml documents that are controlled by the OpenEHR xml schema). To use the data one can use a query languege (AQL or XPATH/XQUERY) to get the data which can then be used for different purposes (like creating CDA document ). If working directly with xml documents, you can use XSLT for performing transformations between OpenEHR xml schema and CDA schema. In the other direction, you can also use XSLT, obviously. Anyhow, there are a few open source OpenEHR repositories which come with frameworks for developing new OpenEHR based applications that run on top of OpenEHR repositories.

In Slovenia, we have a national EHR (IHE based) where CDA is used for the documents. While I worked on the national eHealth project we defined OpenERH as the way to model clinical content and we are currently (the Slovenian MoH is) in the process of establishing the national process of OpenEHR governance. And plenty more on this topic is happening in Slovenia. The latest PARENT project is also something to note - the register of registers is probably going to use OpenEHR as the basis.

Kind regards  
Mate

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**Author:** ![Jasna\_Dugalic](https://discourse.openehr.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/94ad74/32.png) [@Jasna\_Dugalic](https://discourse.openehr.org/u/Jasna_Dugalic)\
**Post date:** [16 October 2013 14:51 UTC](https://discourse.openehr.org/t/exchanging-data/15607/7 "2013-10-16T14:51:13Z")

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Thank you all for your answers. I know theoretically how thing work but I’m not sure I’m doing the right thing.

For example if one system is openEHR compatible and the other isn’t who needs to make XSLT transformation? Reading Miroslav’s answer I would say that the openEHR makes xml for exchange according to openEHR rules and the other system needs to send that xml, the other system is responsible for XSLT transformation if they don’t support openEHR. Is this true?

The other obscurity is how are data exchanged? Do I have to exchange TDD, filled with data, and generated from composition (according to TDS) or I’ll have to make some ehr\_extract equivalent? If using ehr\_extract is needed, is there any example on how to use it? I read some parts of the documentation and found [https://github.com/openEHR/adl-archetypes/blob/master/Example/openEHR/ehr\_extract\_template/Working/Templates/ehr\_extract/openEHR-EHR\_EXTRACT-EXTRACT.t\_basic\_acute.v1.adls](https://github.com/openEHR/adl-archetypes/blob/master/Example/openEHR/ehr_extract_template/Working/Templates/ehr_extract/openEHR-EHR_EXTRACT-EXTRACT.t_basic_acute.v1.adls) but I need explanation of its using.

After reading the [openEHR.Net](http://openEHR.Net) documentation I would say that TDD is the one that needs to be exchanged between systems but as I said I’m not sure. After reading Mate’s comment I would say CDA must be exchanged between systems.

Thanks,

Jasna

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**Author:** ![Koray\_Atalag](https://discourse.openehr.org/user_avatar/discourse.openehr.org/koray_atalag/32/70_2.png) [@Koray\_Atalag](https://discourse.openehr.org/u/Koray_Atalag)\
**Post date:** [17 October 2013 02:47 UTC](https://discourse.openehr.org/t/exchanging-data/15607/8 "2013-10-17T02:47:55Z")

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Hi Mate – and also mate as people often greet each other in New Zealand J

Well done with all the great work – which sounds very impressive.

I’m particularly interested in the “Register of registers” concept – can you please elaborate on this?

A PhD candidate of mine is planning to establish some ‘decision support’ tool for modellers by looking at a number of model sources, including other CKMs and some relevant ontologies, DCMs, CDA etc. Do you see a match?

Cheers,

-koray

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**Author:** ![ian.mcnicoll](https://discourse.openehr.org/user_avatar/discourse.openehr.org/ian.mcnicoll/32/4430_2.png) [@ian.mcnicoll](https://discourse.openehr.org/u/ian.mcnicoll)\
**Post date:** [17 October 2013 08:34 UTC](https://discourse.openehr.org/t/exchanging-data/15607/9 "2013-10-17T08:34:34Z")

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Hi Jasna,

All of these are valid choices. There is a 'canonical' XML format  
whose schema are on the openEHR website. It is possible to exchange  
data in this format in a number of ways via the openEHR EHR-Extract,  
inside a CDA document as native openEHR data, inside a CDA document,  
transformed to equivalent CDA templates where they exist.

The choice will largely depend on the environment you are working in.

TDD is a simplified version of openEHR XML which is easier to work  
with, since the XML tags reflect more directly the business names of  
the parent openEHR template from which the TDD is derived. Any TDD  
document can be transformed to the canonical format via a standard  
transform.

In current projects in the UK we have used

1. Native 'proprietary' xml transformed to TDD then transformed to  
canonical openEHR XML then persisted.

2. Native proprietary system populates a TDD then the TDD is carried  
as an attachment within a CDA Level 1 wrapper. The openEHR TDD is then  
stripped out on receipt, transformed ot canonical format and  
persisted.

I would also expect to be working with situations where the openEHR  
data needs to be transformed to/from full CDA level 3 templates. This  
is considerably more complex since it requires more fine-grained  
mapping.

It all depends what the customer wants and to a large extent the  
degree of CDA adoption by the host country.

Ian

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**Author:** ![Jasna\_Dugalic](https://discourse.openehr.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/94ad74/32.png) [@Jasna\_Dugalic](https://discourse.openehr.org/u/Jasna_Dugalic)\
**Post date:** [28 October 2013 07:27 UTC](https://discourse.openehr.org/t/exchanging-data/15607/10 "2013-10-28T07:27:19Z")

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Thank you Ian, that is the answer I was looking for.