Introduction

Historically, terminologies used in medicine have been created and managed by many organizations. These organizations have differed in many important ways including how they intended the terminologies to be used, how they funded their efforts, and most importantly, how they created, maintained, and versioned their terminologies. Unfortunately this has led to a landscape where terminologies seldom behave in a consistent fashion, presenting the consumers of clinical terminologies with an immense implementation and maintenance task if they want to use the terminologies in a safe, consistent manner that would promote semantic interoperability of their content.

Solor is an open-source ecosystem that brings together different terminology standards by using a single model that can encompass any content with the explicit goal of of avoiding errors in the interpretation of clinical data.

Solor's approach to semantic interoperability:

Standardize the terminology model for use in encoding data
Enable the sharing of open and proprietary terminology extensions
Evolve existing meaningful use standards (SNOMED CT, LOINC, RxNor, etc.) to better meet local needs

Types of Interoperability

Foundation – Data exchange from one system to another
Structural – The syntax of the data exchange at the data format/field level
Semantic – The exchange of information in a way that the receiving system can interpret the data

Solor News

FedHealthIT Article April 2019

Solor was recently featured as a front page story on FedHealthIT. Here is an excerpt that you may find of interest:

“By using open source software for this transformation, Solor enables developers to collaborate and convert any user-supplied terminologies into a single, shareable model. This dramatic simplification represents a paradigm shift in how developers consume terminology, and thereby enables collaborative improvement in medical knowledge, patient care, and patient safety.”

…

“Wider adoption of Solor will help VA and Veterans by simplifying electronic health information exchange with private sector partners and enabling more reliable coordinated care. This adoption matters for the implementation of the MISSION Act. As the data quality improves through Solor, VA will have the sustained effectiveness of clinical decision support tools necessary for a high-reliability organization while providing seamless care to Veterans.”

You can read the full article here: VA’s Solor – Bringing Seamless Care to Veterans and Beyond.

Talking Semantic Interoperability with the VA’s Keith Campbell by David Raths

Can Solor Project Create Terminology Foundation for Interoperability? by David Raths