An Interactive Visualization Tool for HL7 FHIR Specification Browsing and Profiling

J Healthc Inform Res. 2019 Sep;3(3):329-344. doi: 10.1007/s41666-018-0043-8. Epub 2019 Jan 10.

Abstract

The rich semantic representation and sophisticated structure definition of the HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) specification requires relatively great efforts to understand and utilize. The objective of our study is to design, develop and evaluate an open-source and user-friendly visualization interface for exploring the FHIR specification. We prototyped an interactive visualization tool for navigating and manipulating the FHIR core resources, profiles and extensions. The utility of the tool was evaluated using evaluation metrics mainly focusing on its interactive mechanism and content expressiveness. We demonstrated that the visualization techniques are helpful for navigating the HL7 FHIR specification and aiding its profiling.

Keywords: HL7 FHIR; clinical data model; interactive browsing; model profiling; visualization.