I am reaching out to invite you to participate in a brief survey as part of the openEHR Fellowship 2025 project. The aim of this project is to better understand the challenges and needs professionals face when searching for and mapping data elements to openEHR archetypes. Your insights will be invaluable in shaping the design, content, and functionality of future tools and resources for the openEHR community.
Your participation is completely voluntary and anonymous. No personal information will be collected, and your responses cannot be linked back to you in any way. You are free to withdraw from the survey at any time, for any reason. All responses will be analyzed only in aggregate, and the data will be used exclusively for research and development within this project.
By sharing your experience, you will help us identify key areas for improvement and ensure that the solutions developed truly meet the needs of professionals like yourself.
If you have any questions about the survey or the project, please feel free to contact me.
Thank you very much for considering this request. Your input is greatly appreciated!
I hope this message finds you well. About two weeks ago, I invited you to participate in a brief survey as part of the openEHR Fellowship 2025 project. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to everyone who has already taken the time to share their valuable insights—your input is greatly appreciated!
If you have not yet had the opportunity to participate and are interested in contributing, there is still time. Please note that the survey will close on August 15th.
As a reminder, the survey is completely voluntary and anonymous. No personal information is collected, and all responses are analyzed in aggregate for research and development purposes only.
I just wrapped up the evaluation of our recent questionnaire on archetype search practices. Thanks so much to everyone who participated!
The response data and all the detailed graphs, bits and bobs can be accessed here: Fellowship Updates
Here are a few highlights from what we learned:
Guidelines and Tools: Participants use a wide range of guidelines for template creation, including clinical, domain-specific, and project-specific sources. The most common tools for documenting elements are mind maps, spreadsheets, and openEHR-specific modelling tools (CKM, Archetype Designer).
Archetype Search Practices: The openEHR CKM is the primary tool for searching archetypes (used by 81.8%). Most users find the search only somewhat effective, citing issues like irrelevant or redundant results, lack of advanced filters, and insufficient documentation.
Main Search Challenges: Key problems include difficulty filtering/searching by specific attributes, too many similar archetypes, outdated results, and language barriers. Users want better indexing, more synonyms, and element-level search.
Tracking Relationships: Approaches vary: some use built-in tools, others track manually, and a few do not track relationships at all.
Collaboration: Archetype search is mostly done individually, but when collaboration occurs (typically 2-3 people), it is valued for improving quality, completeness, and speed of selection. Collaboration platforms include modelling tools, video conferencing, SharePoint, and email.
Desired Improvements: Users want more flexible archetypes, better integration with standards (e.g., FHIR, SNOMED CT), improved change request processes, and AI-based tools for archetype selection. There is a strong call for more structured international collaboration and greater clinician involvement.
Tooling and Workflow Suggestions: Participants request better impact analysis for AQL, improved tool integration (especially between CKM and Archetype Designer), more visible RM fields, and enhanced semantic support (e.g., semantic links to terminology).
