Robust and Semi-automatic Electronic Health Record Dissemination Using the Devices Profile for Web Services

Much conceptual work was done on medical device interoperability. Though many architectures, terminologies, and standards exist today, they have not achieved the desired acceptance yet, or provide ambiguous implementation directives. Recent research has shown that the Devices Profile for Web Services (DPWS) is suitable for device interconnectivity. Since DPWS was made to support a wide range of device types, it lacks concrete message process flows to enable added value in clinical environments. Hence, we first discuss existing approaches to interconnect devices in the operating room or intensive care. Afterwards, we introduce a protocol to transmit Electronic Health Records (EHRs) between hospital information systems and medical devices. Our evaluation shows that EHR distribution can be done almost automatically, while robustness is guaranteed against devices which will join a device ensemble both early and late, or against devices which will crash during intervention.