title: Developing a common health information exchange platform to implement a nationwide health information network in South Korea.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We aimed to develop a common health information exchange (HIE) platform that can provide integrated services for implementing the HIE infrastructure in addition to guidelines for participating in an HIE network in South Korea.
  
  
  METHODS
  By exploiting the Health Level 7 (HL7) Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) and Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) Cross-enterprise Document Sharing-b (XDS.b) profile, we defined the architectural model, exchanging data items and their standardization, messaging standards, and privacy and security guidelines, for a secure, nationwide, interoperable HIE. We then developed a service-oriented common HIE platform to minimize the effort and difficulty of fulfilling the standard requirements for participating in the HIE network. The common platform supports open application program interfaces (APIs) for implementing a document registry, a document repository, a document consumer, and a master patient index. It could also be used for testing environments for the implementation of standard requirements.
  
  
  RESULTS
  As the initial phase of implementing a nationwide HIE network in South Korea, we built a regional network for workers' compensation (WC) hospitals and their collaborating clinics to share referral and care record summaries to ensure the continuity of care for industrially injured workers, using the common HIE platform and verifying the feasibility of our technologies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We expect to expand the HIE network on a national scale with rapid support for implementing HL7 and IHE standards in South Korea.
authors.affiliation: R&D Center, ezCaretech Co. Ltd., Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Minho
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Center for Medical Informatics, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, Korea.
authors.forename: Eunyoung
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Heo
authors.affiliation: R&D Center, ezCaretech Co. Ltd., Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Heesook
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: IT Convergence Policy Team, National IT Industry Promotion Agency, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Jun Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: IT Convergence Policy Team, National IT Industry Promotion Agency, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Sangho
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Weon
authors.affiliation: R&D Center, ezCaretech Co. Ltd., Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Hoseok
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chae
authors.affiliation: Center for Medical Informatics, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, Korea.
authors.forename: Hee
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.affiliation: Center for Medical Informatics, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, Korea.
authors.forename: Sooyoung
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yoo
keywords: Computer System; Data Security; Electronic Health Records; Health Information Exchange; Health Level Seven