Current Health Data Standardization Project and Future Directions to Ensure Interoperability in Korea.

OBJECTIVES: The need for interoperability at the national level was highlighted in Korea, leading to a consensus on the importance of establishing national standards that align with international technological standards and reflect contemporary needs. This article aims to share insights into the background of the recent national health data standardization policy, the activities of the Health Data Standardization Taskforce, and the future direction of health data standardization in Korea. METHODS: To ensure health data interoperability, the Health Data Standardization Taskforce was jointly organized by the public and private sectors in December 2022. The taskforce operated three working groups. It reviewed international trends in interoperability standardization, assessed the current status of health data standardization, discussed its vision, mission, and strategies, engaged in short-term standardization activities, and established a governance system for standardization. RESULTS: On September 15, 2023, the notice of "Health Data Terminology and Transmission Standards" in Korea was thoroughly revised to improve the exchange of health information between information systems and ensure interoperability. This notice includes the Korea Core Data for Interoperability (KR CDI) and the Korea Core Data Transmission Standard (HL7 FHIR KR Core), which are outcomes of the taskforce's efforts. Additionally, to reinforce the standardized governance system, the Health-Data Standardization Promotion Committee was established. CONCLUSIONS: Active interest and support from medical informatics experts are needed for the development and widespread adoption of health data standards in Korea.

Seoul National University Bundang Hospital's Electronic System for Total Care.

OBJECTIVES: Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, which is the first Stage 7 hospital outside of North America, has adopted and utilized an innovative and emerging information technology system to improve the efficiency and quality of patient care. The objective of this paper is to briefly introduce the major components of the SNUBH information system and to describe our progress toward a next-generation hospital information system (HIS). METHODS: SNUBH opened in 2003 as a fully digital hospital by successfully launching a new HIS named BESTCare, "Bundang hospital Electronic System for Total Care". Subsequently, the system has been continuously improved with new applications, including close-loop medication administration (CLMA), clinical data warehouse (CDW), health information exchange (HIE), and disaster recovery (DR), which have resulted in the achievement of Stage 7 status. RESULTS: The BESTCare system is an integrated system for a university hospital setting. BESTCare is mainly composed of three application domains: the core applications, an information infrastructure, and channel domains. The most critical and unique applications of the system, such as the electronic medical record (EMR), computerized physician order entry (CPOE), clinical decision support system (CDSS), CLMA, CDW, HIE, and DR applications, are described in detail. CONCLUSIONS: Beyond our achievement of Stage 7 hospital status, we are currently developing a next-generation HIS with new goals of implementing infrastructure that is flexible and innovative, implementing a patient-centered system, and strengthening the IT capability to maximize the hospital value.

Development and impact of radio-frequency identification-based workflow management in health promotion center: using interrupted time-series analysis.

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology is being used increasingly for its efficiency and safety. The goal of this study is to evaluate the RFID technology within a hospital information system (HIS) for better workflow management in a health promotion center. We developed an RFID (433 mHz) real-time tracking system to monitor patients at the room level. Then we implemented an automatic workflow management by integrating RFID system with HIS. If a patient has finished one examination, the next step is determined automatically by previous number of examined patients and duration in each examination room. We performed interrupted time-series analysis of the mean waiting time for patients in a health promotion center compared with a control group of outpatients in the hospital's radiology department before and after the implementation of an RFID-based system. After implementation of the RFID system, the mean waiting time of patients in the health promotion center decreased significantly (from 5.4 to 4.3 min, 20% decrease) compared with the control group (from 3.8 to 3.5 min, 8% decrease). The RFID system integrated with HIS increases workflow efficiency by shortening the mean waiting time during the workflow process and provides valuable real-time data for physicians and staff regarding workflow efficiency.