Semantic interoperability in the OR.NET project on networking of medical devices and information systems — A requirements analysis

OR.NET is the German national flagship project on networking of medical devices and information systems. Its objective is to define, implement and validate a standard-based integration solution for safe and dynamic networking of devices and systems in the operating room and its clinical surroundings. An important part of this project is to ensure semantic interoperability. Besides standardized inter-device communication, this task needs an engine for semantic mediation between heterogeneous communication partners. This work analyses the requirements that need to be satisfied by such an engine. It will have to transform messages between different forms of standardized representation in the operational environment of an open communication framework. Especially the information exchange between devices and information systems will be dependent on the engine´s reliable and verifiable semantic mediation. Being deployed on an embedded device in a service-oriented architecture based on web services, the component will have to comply not only with international healthcare standards and medical device directives but also with W3C specifications to provide and describe its capabilities. In the future, the semantic interoperability engine could be extended to a general ontology-based framework, further promoting and supporting device integration based on standards in the surgery domain.