1 Week (July 14 - 19):

Task A, GUI for IXF Export specification

possible inputs from users, like export by,

• Period - just provide a calendar GUI with from and to dates
• Location - options are All or any Clinic or Hospital from a list of available ones.
• Gender - Both, Female, Male
• Age Group - All, 1-5yrs, 5-10yrs, 10-15yrs, … (or is there any kind of WHO standard for age group classification?)
• Observation name - All or any specific interest from a list of observations (such a list will be generated from the encounters and observation for the given period)

Task B, IXF Export Object (Aggregation Service)

Prepare an IXF export object for containing and counting the discrete object that can make up the XML file to be exported. For the time being the IXFExportObject will have attributes of the following

• Name - observation name or disease name
• Location - hospital or clinic where such data is registered
• Period - the time when the observation encountered
• Gender - the gender where the patient belongs
• Age group - the age group where the patient is making up
• Count - an integer value containing a value of zero initially, and every time such an object is encountered in the export process ( mainly during aggregation) its value will increase by one

1 Week (July 21 - 26)

Task C, Aggregation (Aggregation Service)

Based on the inputs from users, Task A above, here the encounters will be collected as per the specification mentioned. This is basically couning the number of IXFExportObjects having similar charactiersitcs!

Task D, XML file generation (Export Service)

Here an XML file will be generated using the IXFExportObjects collected above (Task C). The XML file to be generated is based on the IXF V3 standard.

1 Week (July 28 - August 3)

Task E, Importing into DHIS (Import Service)

This task is to parse the IXF V3 file and put it into DHIS2 database. specifically each IXFExportObject is to match DHIS2 object called dataelement.

And this dataelement is to have a

• name  - Matching IXFExportObject name
• OrganisationUnit - Matching IXFExportObject location
• Period - Matching IXFExportObect period
• Value - Matching IXFExportObject count
• Age (if multidimensional dataelement) - matching Age group of IXFExportObject
• Gender (if multidimensional dataelement) -matching Gender of IXFExportObject
• …

Core Tasks

1. Aggregation Service (From OpenMRS Side)
2. Export Service (From OpenMRS Side)
3. Import Service (From DHIS2 Side)

1. Aggregation Service

This service is to handle a task of “Collecting a data of special interest from a given clinic registered for a given period”

Such a collection specification is to be made by users using a nice to use GUI. Users looking to export data from OpenMRS will be provided an interface by which they will be able to specify a data of their interest, specifically an occurrence or observation or more generally a disease which happens to be registered for a given sex category and age group in a given hospital or clinic or more generally locality in a given period.

Because such a service is to be implemented from OpenMRS side, the corresponding aggregation service called COHORT will be a very good candidate for providing the required service with a possible extension.

2. Export Service

This service is to handle the formatting and exporting of the data collected by the aggregation service.

The formatting and exporting task is to be done in such a way that the data to be exported could be understood and processed by DHIS2. Because DHIS2 has an initial effort in making it understand XML based data exchange, a standard way of data exchange called Indicator eXchange Format (IXF) will be used as a way for exchanging data between OpenMRS and DHIS2.

IXF is chosen because it is becoming an emerging standard in data exchange between big health information systems – such as CRIS and KIDS.

3. Import Service

This is basically extending and enhancing the existing DHIS2 XML data import module so that it can parse and process IXF based XML data.

Well this is my first blog about a programming project I am working on “Integration of OpenMRS and DHISv2″

The objective of this integration project is - to develop module (s), both from DHIS 2 and OpenMRS side, to facilitate the exchange of information between DHIS2 and OpenMRS.

DHIS2, District Health Information Software version 2, is a health management information system which is targeted at the distributed collection and analysis of routine data, specifically for primary health care mainly at aggregate level (DHIS2). On the other hand OpenMRS, Open Medical Record System, is an application which enables design of a customized medical records system with no programming knowledge, i.e., OpenMRS is a common framework upon which medical informatics efforts in developing countries can be built in order to store patient level data in a very flexible and extended manner (OpenMRS).

Both systems, DHIS2 and OpenMRS, are built onto the philosophy of open source and Java technologies targeted for the context and use of Developing Countries. Both sharing the same technical framework and implementation contexts, they can be integrated to the maximum so that a complete and full-fledged health information system could be implemented for both the routine activities of patient treatment (OpenMRS) and the overall assessment of health system (DHIS2). And it is such an integrated system that my intention is aimed at building.