Minimum Clinical Data Set. Development for a Sri Lankan Context

Academic Paper from the year 2017 in the subject Health - Digital Health Management, grade: 100.00, University of Colombo, language: English, abstract: This project focused on developing the prototype MPI for Sri Lanka with the view to implementing and scaling up at the national level. A Master Patient Index(MPI) is a centralized index of all patients in a health care system. This index is composed of a unique identifier for each patient link to his/her demographic data and clinical encounters. An MPI is essential to ensure data interoperability in a different health care institution. The Health Ministry of Sri Lanka planning to develop MPI for the country. Development of Minimum Clinical Data Set is a part of the MPI development which give the ability to exchange data among the health information systems. This project consisted of 3 phases. Phase 1: requirement analysis using focus group discussions (FGD) with information system users. Phase 2: identification of the minimum clinical data set suitable Phase 3: Application Programming Interface (API) model. Phase 4: Development of the prototype MPI. FGD were conducted in 6 hospitals. There were 78 interviewers (Male -36, and female - 42). They highlighted the key requirements for the MPI. Which were the unique identification method and different searching criteria and merging records to avoid duplication. Interview of the different specialists in the relevant clinical fields identifies the minimum clinical dataset. Using this information, the requirements specification for Minimum Clinical data set and MPI was developed. A combination of monolithic and microservices architecture was selected to develop the MPI. The API using the Personal Health Number (PHN) as the unique patient identifier and HL7 standard was developed and implemented. Conclusions: Development and implementation of an MPI have facilitated the long due need for interoperability among health information systems in Sri Lankan.