Web Services in Health Care - Assignment Example

Web Services in Health Care First Middle initial and of Prof. First and of lecturer January 15, 2012 Web Services in Health Care A.1. The legacy systems currently used in healthcare organizations present several challenges with respect to health management information systems (HMIS): 1. Lack of interoperability is one of the major issues with existing HMIS as there is considerable difference in the standards, technological architecture and formats in which health information is collected and recorded (Tan & Payton, 2009). This results in duplication or fragmented medical data causing significant delays in patient care and affecting both physician and employee productivity. 2. Inadequate training of employees, high degree of inaccuracies in data collection and lack of technical expertise has resulted in islands of HMIS that function separately with no sharing of data and processes (World Health Organization, 2004). 3. Data security has also been a major concern with existing HMIS as they lack security patches and are at greater risk of being compromised. Data transmission and network limitations are other issues with existing HMIS (Tan & Payton, 2009). Healthcare organizations have predominantly purchased or built their own HMIS and database management systems (DBMS) using different database platforms like Microsoft SQL, Oracle and Microsoft Access and different programming languages like Java, Visual Basic and C++ (Tan & Payton, 2009). Also, the increase in automation has encouraged the demand for wireless medical devices and systems for numerous applications like telemedicine, medical record keeping, healthcare monitoring and health decision support systems (Tan & Payton, 2009). Since these HMIS are not based on a common standard or architecture and have inherent semantic differences, they function independently resulting in duplication of data or fragmented or incomplete medical care records (Tan & Payton, 2009). These stand-alone systems significantly restrict the sharing of data and processing of information which is critical in the healthcare decision making process and patient care. Therefore, system interoperability is becoming a major concern for existing HMIS. A.2. Web services consist of the following four protocols: 1. XML (eXtensible Markup Language): It is a “world wide web consortium that defines a meta-language for describing data” (Cavanaugh, n.d., p. 4). Since the XML syntax has text based mark-up that gives information about the data and its hierarchical structure, it is independent of the application and therefore helps in seamlessly exchanging data over intranets or internets (Cavanaugh, n.d.). 2. SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol): It is an XML based communications protocol for exchanging data over HTTP (Cavanaugh, n.d.). It provides a simple and standards-based method for sending XML messages between different applications (Cavanaugh, n.d.). 3. WSDL (Web Services Description Language): It is an XML document that describes web services in terms of the location of the service, the operations it supports and the format of the messages to be exchanged (Cavanaugh, n.d.). 4. UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration): It is a platform-independent framework for creating an XML based registry that provides information about service providers and the web services they offer (Cavanaugh, n.d.). It is often called the yellow pages of web services. The purpose of using web services in HMIS is to use the Internet more like a transactional tool rather than a visual tool (IBM, n.d.). In this regard web services provide a solid basis for interoperability among HMIS applications on the internet as it is not dependent on the platform, language or vendor of the applications. The standardized nature of the components of web services resolve many issues related to intersystem communication. For e.g., HTTP standard allows more systems to communicate with each other, the SOAP (which is built on XML) standardizes the messaging capabilities of various systems, UDDI standardizes the publishing and finding of web services while the WSDL standardizes the description of web services so that providers and customers are able to speak the same language (IBM, n.d.). Web services will therefore help access data at a faster rate and more reliably than before. Critical and real-time data from multiple locations can be accessed and shared between different HMIS applications via the web which would significantly help in decision making and patient care. A.3.The standardized nature of the components of web services resolve many issues related to intersystem communication and promotes interoperability across platforms, applications and programming languages (IBM, n.d.). However, there are some disadvantages of using web services as well. One of the major drawbacks of web services is the high run-time cost for web service solutions (Tan & Payton, 2009). Conversion of all the data into and out of XML can slow down processing and is therefore not as efficient as using a proprietary binary code (Sotomayor, 2005). Another issue is that web services may not be available all the time since the server or the ISP may not be up and running all the time (Pearson, n.d.). However, unlike protocols built on HTTP, newer protocols like Java Message Service can handle this automatically (Pearson, n.d.). Again, web services may not be able to address specialized needs of certain customers as it is usually designed as a “one size fits most customers” technology (Pearson, n.d.) Therefore, feasibility of web services solution for HMIS depends on what the customer wants to accomplish and the amount of money they are willing to invest. A.4. There are several challenges with web services solution: 1. SOAP, WSDL and UDDI protocols are unsecure as they are not able to identify the user trying to perform an activity or ensure that the person has valid access rights (Danylyszyn, 2003). 2. The current web services lack adequate transaction management capabilities i.e., “they do not provide a mechanism for handling synchronization across multiple applications” (Danylyszyn, 2003, para 3). 3. Lack of universal data definitions makes web services very expensive for companies to implement and maintain them (Danylyszyn, 2003). In order to overcome these challenges, the web services architecture should include features that ensure proper authentication and authorization of users. Although organizations like OASIS are defining security extensions to SOAP, these standards need to gain industry-wide acceptance (Danylyszyn, 2003). Again, the long transaction time to translate data from native to XML format and implementation of universal data definitions needs to be considered while developing applications to prevent poor performance (Rader, 2002). References Cavanaugh, E. (n.d.). Web services: Benefits, challenges, and a unique, visual developmental solution. Altova. Retrieved from http://www.altova.com/whitepapers/webservices.pdf Danylyszyn, A. (2003). Facing the challenges of web services BPM. SOA World Magazine. Retrieved from http://soa.sys-con.com/node/39876 IBM. (n.d.). Advantages of web services. Software Information Center. Retrieved from http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tpfhelp/current/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.ztpf-ztpfdf.doc_put.cur%2Fgtps6%2Fs6wsadv.html Pearson Education. (n.d.). Disadvantages and pitfalls of web services. Retrieved from http://www.pearsonhighered.com/samplechapter/0672325152.pdf Rader, D. (2002). Overcoming web services challenges with smart design. SOA World Magazine. Retrieved from http://soa.sys-con.com/node/39458 Sotomayor, B. (2005). A short introduction to web services. Globus Documentation Project. Retrieved from http://gdp.globus.org/gt4-tutorial/multiplehtml/ch01s02.html Tan, J. & Payton, F. C. (2009). Adaptive health management information systems. Sudbury, Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett. World Health Organization. (2004). Developing health management information systems: A practical guide for developing countries. Retrieved from http://www.wpro.who.int/NR/ rdonlyres/3A34C50D-C035-425A-8155-65E8AD3CB906/0/Health_manage.pdf Read More