Representing Traits in WS/PIDS

The only standard for handling and sharing patient demographics and other identifying information is the CORBAmed Person Identification Service (PIDS). We recently introduced WS/PIDS, a corresponding specification using Web Services, immediately usable for sharing EHR data in heterogeneous distributed environments; this paper focuses on the XML Schema definition of traits (attributes) in WS/PIDS. Assumptions implied in the original PIDS are discussed, as well as new needs due to multimedia data formats. Different possible alternatives for representing traits are explored, and the most suitable one among them is incorporated and validated in WS/PIDS