HL7 Tooling Challenge

HL7 is holding a contest to encourage the development of HL7 tools. Will your team be the one to develop the solution and take home the prize?

The 2012-2013 Tooling challenge is sponsored by Sparx Systems.

Prize

$4,000 USD

Submission Deadlines

May 5, 2013 - Deadline to declare intent to participate

July 1, 2013 - Submission deadline

Winner Announced

September 23, 2013 - During the HL7 Plenary Meeting

Sponsor

Thanks to Sparx Systems for sponsoring this challenge


The challenge for 2012-2013 is

Produce a UML Profile for MIF Static Models

The goal is to increase the number of modeling tools that are compatible with the MIF format.

To qualify for the prize, a submitter must perform all of the following tasks:

  • Create a UML profile that correctly describes MIF (Model Interchange Format) static models to the extent allowed by the UML language.
  • Document any parts of MIF static models that can not be expressed in UML Profile Language. This documentation will be provided to OMG and used when considering potential extensions to UML.
  • Use the submitted UML profile to adapt Enterprise Architect to express the proper HL7 stereotypes as a proof of concept.

HOW TO ENTER

  1. Sign up for an account on the HL7 GForge site, if you don't already have one.
  2. Declare your intent to participate by filling out the form by May 5, 2013
  3. A private project will be created for you on the HL7 GForge site, and you will be sent instructions on how to upload files to the Subversion repository there.
  4. Upload your completed submission to your GForge project by July 1, 2013.

OFFICIAL RULES

Please see the official rules page for full details.

BACKGROUND

The Model Interchange Format is organized as a set of XML Schema files that describe the key metadata to express published standards. The MIF is used to transform the approved models as serialized XML files. The MIF was designed to meet the requirements of the V3 Methodology to express concepts that could not be expressed in XMI.

Please see the following links for more information:

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The first in a series of webinars for those who are interested in participating in the challenge will be held on:

Thursday, October 25, 2012
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM EDT (GMT -4)

Those interested in participating in this webinar can register by visiting the URL below.

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/760853506.

During the webinar those interested in the Tooling Challenge will have an opportunity to ask questions and receive answers from our panel of judges and a Sparx representative. Space is limited, so early registration is encouraged.

More information on future webinars and other announcements will be posted on this page as it becomes available. Please bookmark this page and check back soon.

THE JUDGES

Submissions will be evaluated by the following individuals.

  • George (Woody) Beeler Jr PhD
    Principal, Beeler Consulting LLC
    Co-chair, HL7 Foundation and Technology Steering Division
    Co-chair, HL7 Modeling and Methodology Work Group
    Co-chair, HL7 Publishing Work Group
  • AbdulMalik Shakir
    City of Hope National Medical Center
    Co-chair, HL7 Modeling and Methodology Work Group
    Facilitator, HL7 Modeling and Methodology Work Group
  • Richard Soley
    Chairman and CEO, Object Management Group (OMG)

JUDGING CRITERIA

Submissions will be judged based on the following criteria:

  • Validity - The submitted UML profile must be a valid and complete representation of HL7 MIF static models. The functionality will be tested in Enterprise Architect to ensure that the program can produce the necessary class models. OMG will also verify the submission's interoperability with other OMG standards.
  • Compatibility - Compatibility with Enterprise Architect is mandatory. Solutions that can also demonstrate compatibility with other modeling tools will be judged more favorably.
  • Documentation - Solutions that are well documented in a way that is easy for newcomers to the HL7 V3 standard to understand will be judged more favorably.
  • Extensibility - Solutions that are more easily extended to keep up with changes in the methodology will be judged more favorably.

The prize will be given to the team submitting the best solution, as determined by the judges. In case of more than one team submitting an equaly valid solution, the team that submitted earliest will be awarded the prize.

The announcement of the winning submission will take place at the September 2013 HL7 Working Group Meeting, provided that a qualifying entry has been received. If no qualifying submission is received by the contest deadline, the contest will continue until a qualifying entry is submitted.

ADDITIONAL OBJECTIVES

The following tooling objectives would also add value, and will be used to solicit existing or contributed tools - and potentially be the subject of a different HL7 Tooling Challenge in the future.

  1. Produce a MIF to XMI XML transform consistent with the updated UML Profile.
  2. Produce a viewer that can browse MIF schemas (Meta level)- this task makes it easier to understand the relationship among the MIF files and their elements.
  3. Produce a viewer that can browse MIF based models (model level)- this task makes it easier to understand the serialized models expressed in MIF XML.
  4. Produce a viewer that can browse instances from MIF based models (instance level) - this task makes it easier to evaluate instances based on serialized MIF models.(there is some work that already exists)

From RIMBAA, which has its own tools page at Tools for RIM based software development: #1 is certainly a key issue for software developers. We already have an example of #2 as an educational tool made available by a commercial party, #4 is probably already (mostly) availble as the Instance Editor. The MIF based 'evaluation' of instances, without validating the instance, doesn't sound terribly attractive.