1. Requirements for Epidemic Information Management Farrukh Najmi XML Standards Architect Sun Microsystems farrukh.najmi@sun.com

2. About the Speaker ● XML Standards Architect, Sun – Focused on content management ● Previously, architect of HP CareVue Clinical Information System ● Co-author and editor, ebXML Registry ● Co-founder, freebxml.org ● Lead Architect, freebXML Registry

3. Some Basic Assumptions ● Advancing information management capabilities is the key to advancing epidemic management ● Topics covered are applicable to many other scenarios beyond epidemic management – Applies to any emergency management scenario

4. Agenda ● Requirements for epidemic information management ● Relevant technologies and standards ● Gap analysis, conclusions

5. Information is Diverse ● Published literature – pubmed.com – Bio-med info databases (human genome) ● Morbidity reports ● Patient records ● Live stock records ● Multiple languages

6. Information is Distributed ● Hospitals and Clinics ● Port of entry ● Customs ● Local public health departments ● National: US CDC ● Farms, agri-business

7. Need Info Sharing Across Entities Hospitals Center for Disease Control Clinics State Public Health Dept. Airports Seaports Customs Dept. FBI CIA Homeland Security Agri-business Agriculture Dept. Farms FEMA NRC Internet

8. Info Management is Collaborative ● Many information authors belonging to many different autonomous entities ● Many consumers of information ● Need to support workflow ● Workflow must be governed by collaborative Business Processes

9. Info Sharing Must Be Secure ● Authenticity of source ● Integrity ● Confidentiality ● Role Based Access Control (RBAC) ● Audit trail

10. Info Sharing Must Be Reliable ● Guaranteed delivery of messages ● Quality of service – At most once delivery – Once and only once delivery

11. Info Sharing Must Be Timely ● Asynchronous event notification (Alerting) ● Subscriptions to relevant information ● Content based selection of what is relevant (Filtering) ● Delivery of notifications via multiple channels: email, web service invocation

12. Need for Standard Vocabularies ● Must requirement for info sharing ● Not many exist today ● Need to be globally standardized ● Each facet of epidemic information needs a separate standard vocabulary ● Desirable to have a common core vocabulary across all facets

13. Need for Vocabulary Reconciliation ● Vocabulary divergence is inevitable – Standard vocabulary is only a foundation – Regional customization and specialization is necessary ● Need ability to declare that two vocabulary terms are semantically equivalent

14. Info Must Be Self Describing ● Need for standard metadata ● Ability to name, describe and uniquely identify information ● Ability to classify information ● Ability to define semantic relationships between information ● Ability to define semantic metadata

15. Info Must Be Discoverable ● Metadata key to enable discovery ● Need standard discovery service ● Must support ad hoc queries ● Must support parameterized stored queries

16. Technology Standards for Epidemic Information Management Farrukh Najmi XML Standards Architect Sun Microsystems farrukh.najmi@sun.com

17. What is ebXML? ● A modular suite of technical specifications ● Developed by OASIS and UN/CEFACT ● Enables enterprises to communicate with each using open standards

18. What is ebXML Registry? ● A standard for secure, reliable, distributed information management

19. Information is Diverse ● ebXML Registry – Has both registry and repository – Repository holds any type of content – Registry holds standardized metadata – Metadata describes the content and makes it discoverable

20. Information is Distributed ● ebXML Registry – Has a loosely coupled federated architecture – Information may be linked across enterprise boundaries – Information may be replicated across enterprise boundaries (only when appropriate) – Federated discovery across enterprises

21. Info Management is Collaborative ● ebXML Registry – Supports web content management – Web based authoring of information ● ebXML Business Process – Enables collaborative, automated business processes

22. Info Sharing Must Be Secure ● ebXML Registry – Authenticity of source via Digital Signatures – Integrity ensured via signature verification (required) – Confidentiality ensured via XML Encryption (optional) – Role Based Access Control enabled via policies based upon XACML 1.0 standard – Provides complete audit trail of user actions

23. Info Sharing Must Be Reliable ● ebXML Messaging – Provides authenticity, integrity and confidentiality of messages via digital signatures – Guaranteed delivery of messages – Quality of service options

24. Info Sharing Must Be Timely ● ebXML Registry – Asynchronous event notification (Alerting) – Subscriptions to relevant information – Content based selection of what is relevant (Filtering) – Delivery of notifications via multiple channels: email, web service invocation

25. Info Must Be Self Describing ● ebXML Registry Information Model – Defines standard metadata – Ability to name, describe and uniquely identify information – Ability to classify information – Ability to define relationships between information – Working to support semantic metadata

26. Info Must Be Discoverable ● ebXML Registry – Supports standard metadata that supports extensibility – Has a standard discovery service – Support ad hoc queries

27. Need for Standard Vocabularies ● ebXML Core Component ● OASIS CAM: Schema assembly ● OASIS UBL ● Web Ontology Language (OWL) ● But who defines all the standard vocabularies needed in Epidemic Management?

28. So What is Missing? ● Need controlled vocabulary in many areas ● Need a coordinating body to establish standards, policies, procedures and best practices ● Global cooperation and coordination

29. The Future is Now ● Movement from paper to web based electronic forms for data entry ● Forms driven by common controlled vocabularies ● Form metadata and data stored in distributed ebXML Registries ● Automated collaborative workflow

30. Summary ● Information management is key to efficient epidemic management ● ebXML standards meets most requirements for epidemic information management ● There is a need for content standards in various aspects of Epidemic Management

31. More Information ● ebxml.org – http://www.ebxml.org ● freebxml.org – http://www.freebxml.org ● Open Source freebxml Registry – http://ebxmlrr.sourceforge.net/presentations /freebXMLRegistryBrochure.pdf