Hello openEHR Community,
I’m reaching out to gather some valuable insights from those of you who have hands-on experience with integrating openEHR for pathology reporting within the Better platform. Our organization is currently in the planning phase for such a project, and we’re eager to learn from those who have embarked on a similar journey before us.
Hi Maurice,
Pathology integration with openEHR (at least typical biochem/haematology etc) is pretty straight forward as the archetype are well aligned with HL7v2 and FHIR.
Create a target template - something like this ( though note that this is based on older versions of the lab archetypes)
The main challenges then are handling the variation between lab reporting and unusual values like <=10.
@Simon and @steve.pillar from Future Perfect have a lot of experience in this area (using both Better CDR and Ehrbase).
This might be helpful too
2 Likes
Hi Ian,
Thank you so much for your prompt and helpful response. It’s encouraging to hear that openEHR pathology integration is fairly straightforward and in alignment with other established standards like HL7v2 and FHIR.
Appreciate your recommendation on creating a target template as well as the resource links provided. The variation handling and unusual values like <=10 is indeed a valuable point to consider.
Our primary focus, however, is geared more towards how to effectively deploy these templates in our existing workflows and reporting systems, and the potential challenges therein. While we have a good understanding of the foundational aspects, practical insights into the actual deployment and integration within existing systems are what we’re keen on exploring.
Hence, if you, @Simon, @steve.pillar or anyone else in the community could shed some light on this aspect of the process, it would be greatly beneficial. We are particularly interested in factors like change management, user adoption, and iterative refinement of deployed templates based on feedback.
Again, thank you for your time and input. Your expertise is greatly appreciated.
Best regards,
Hi Maurice,
We are particularly interested in factors like change management, user adoption, and iterative refinement of deployed templates based on feedback.
I don’t see an openEHR-based approach having any uniquely different challenges in these areas compared to other more traditional technologies.
We would generally use git - hosting our data models and templates in a git-backed repo. We tend to document mappings in spreadsheets. For this kind of project which is very largely back-end focussed, we would not particularly expect to engage front-line users or need formal archetype reviews.
1 Like
yep, been there and done that 
got the t-shirt…
Let me know if you want a quick demo of the technology its all pretty straight forward we map HL7 messages from lab system into openEHR CDRs. We can even migrate them to other CDRs (living the openEHR dream). The template should be in the CKM but its pretty easy to create your own. Configuration management is the same as for any software artifact in your platforms as @ian.mcnicoll states. To be honest its pretty amazing what you can get for free if you want to start with something low cost, just to prove your point.
2 Likes
Hi Simon,
Thank you for offering to provide a quick demo of the openEHR pathology integration. Having real-world examples from your experience would be invaluable as we start planning our own implementation. I’d be happy to schedule a meeting whenever it’s convenient for you to walk through what you’ve built and lessons learned. I pinged you on LinkedIn so we can schedule a meeting at your earliest convenience. I really appreciate you and the community being open to sharing your knowledge with newcomers like us. Looking forward to learning from your experience!
Best, Maurice
1 Like