A Reference Architecture for Healthcare Systems with Coded Terminology Support

The 21st-century healthcare information systems (HCIS) acquire, integrate, analyse, and explore heterogeneous data available in several information sources to benefit multiple stakeholders. However, current research has mostly focused on technological aspects instead of being concerned with underlying concepts that could be reused to develop HCIS. Here, we sketch a reference architecture following primary requirements that future HCIS should consider. We describe and associate these requirements to each architectural element and demonstrate how the architecture can guide the development of a medical question-answering system. The main contribution is the reuse of common functionalities of the current generation of HCIS.