Model-based Design of Clinical Information Systems

Objective: The goal of this research is to provide a framework to enable the model-based development, simulation, and deployment of clinical information system prototypes with mechanisms that enforce security and privacy policies. Methods. We developed the Model-Integrated Clinical Information System (MICIS), a software toolkit that is based on model-based design techniques and high-level modeling abstractions to represent complex clinical workflows in a service-oriented architecture paradigm. MICIS translates models into executable constructs, such as web service descriptions, business process execution language procedures, and deployment instructions. MICIS models are enriched with formal security and privacy specifications, which are enforced within the execution environment. Results: We successfully validated our design platform by modeling multiple clinical workflows and deploying them onto the execution platform. Conclusions: The model-based approach shows great promise for developing, simulating, and evolving clinical information systems with formal properties and policy restrictions.