A health-care data model based on the HL7 Reference Information Model

The integration of medical information from various sources is gaining in importance as hospitals and medical research centers attempt to gain new insights into existing data. The Health Level Seven® (HL7®) organization has developed an abstract information model for health-care data, the HL7 Reference Information Model (RIM). We describe in this paper our approach to implementing a physical data model based on RIM. Our approach, which combines elements of entity-relationship data modeling and entity-attribute-value data modeling, involves the modeling of base RIM classes, RIM inheritance, and RIM data types. We incorporated the resulting data model into IBM Clinical Genomics, a product that integrates clinical and genomic data in a way that enables medical researchers to carry out clinical research.