MDHT+Success+Stories

1. Success Stories
Since the launch of MDHT, the tool has seen considerable traction and interest from the healthcare industry, leading to the application of MDHT for various initiatives. The following are successful business cases that highlight the application and value of MDHT. toc

2. Clinical Documentation Architecture (CDA) Project
The CDA project consolidates existing disparate IGs through a harmonization process that eliminates current implementation challenges - unclear documentation, lack of technical guidance, and a general overlap of standards – that EHR implementers face. CDA leverages MDHT to enable the reusability of templates to republish consistent IGs for future initiatives.

There are three primary stakeholder groups who benefit from MDHT: **Standards Organizations, Business Analysts, and Java Implementers.**

**2.1 Standards organizations**
MDHT provides the following benefits to standards organizations, such as HL7, IHE, and HITSP: >
 * Formalizes representation of CDA implementation guide conformance rules
 * Replaces current practice of using MS Word for specification development
 * Creates testable UML specification for consistency and use of best practices
 * Enables automated model-driven development and code-generation
 * Automates publication of implementation guides in multiple formats (PDF and XHTML) and alternative content structure (ballot document vs. implementer view)
 * Automates generation of CDA instance validator from specification model (using Java and OCL)

**2.2 Business Analysts**
MDHT provides the following benefits to business analysts:
 * Provides a consistent format of a published implementation guide between different standards organizations (HL7, IHE, and HITSP)
 * Enables cross-referenced, hyperlinked reference material to accelerate analysis and EHR mapping
 * Publishes a “developer view” of implementation guide that combines conformance rules from all inherited templates and base CDA type

**2.3 Java Implementers**
MDHT provides the following benefits to implementers who execute Implementation Guides:
 * Reduces Development Cost: Time and resources for analysis and implementation of CDA content and conformance rules
 * Reduces Maintenance Cost: High quality, domain-specific API for programmatic access to CDA content, and validating conformance with standard implementation guide rules (e.g. CCD and HITSP C32/C83)
 * Makes future support possible for non-Java implementation languages

3. Virtual Lifetime Electronic Records (VLER)
VLER is an initiative under the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). VLER’s primary purpose is to streamline medical recordkeeping to facilitate the sharing of administrative and healthcare information between providers and patients.

MDHT can be used to assist VLER with:
 * The “Normalization” of specifications from HITSP, IHE, and HL7 by creating a develop view that consolidates all inherited template conformance rules
 * Design of VLER model of HITSP/C32 enhancement recommendations for ONC submission by coordinating with the ONC specifications team
 * Domain-specific Java API tuned to VLER HITSP/C32 structure creation, which accelerate adoption by new VLER partners