Electronic Healthcare Design and Development

Electronic Healthcare Design and Development

Background
The goal of this project is to design and develop a course on Electronic Healthcare Design and
Development using Unified Modeling Language (UML) and Java. Electronic healthcare, for
paperless management of all activities within large healthcare establishments, promises much in
speeding up the typical bureaucracy of healthcare in medical centers and hospitals. However, the
realities that face the proper implementation of electronic healthcare involve the integration of many
subsystems for EHR to be properly executed. For widespread adoption of electronic health record
(EHR) systems by hospitals, it is essential to perform a detailed software analysis and design, to set
the stage for standardization of various components for the implementation of EHR. A typical EHR
system can consist of many components and subsystems, such as appointments and scheduling;
admission, discharge, and transfer (ADT); prescription order entry; dietary planning; routine clinical
notes; lab and radiology orders; picture archiving, and smart card sign-on. Thus, object-oriented
analysis and design is well-suited for modeling the complexity posed by this type of software system.
This course will undertake the object-oriented design and development of EHR and its various
subsystems using Unified Modeling Language (UML) and Java. In addition, the development
platform will use Eclipse and Websphere for the implementation and integration of the various
subsystems.
Unified Modeling Language (UML) is the defacto modeling language for object-oriented analysis
and design. UML is not a programming language for software implementation, but rather a modeling
language for software design. A software design is like a blueprint for a house, defining the model
for creating the software. Software design models typically consist of a set of visual diagrams which
describe the structural and behaviorial properties of software. Much like a blueprint, a software
design needs to have a common set of notations to define what is the meaning of, for example, an
arrow verses a square. This is the purpose of UML: to define a complete set of notations for the
various visual models when creating an object-oriented design model. Typical diagrams for objectoriented design are use case diagrams, class diagrams, sequence/collaboration diagrams, activity
diagrams, and statechart diagrams.
The Java programming language is becoming more and more popular all types of computers and
devices. With the proliferation of higher functioning devices, Java applications can be developed to
run on multiple targets, with a common set of application code. This course will expose students to
the basics of electronic healthcare design and development with UML and Java. Laboratory
sessions will equip students with practical experience in electronic healthcare design, programming,
and testing. As part of their final assignment, students will divide into teams to work together in a
designing and implementing real software applications for electronic healthcare.
The IBM Health Integration Framework is a unified software platform for implementing
comprehensive solutions for healthcare providers, healthcare plans and life sciences enterprises to
improve safety and quality of care, process efficiency, and patient and member satisfaction.
Course Overview:
The course is designed to introduce the theory and practice of object-oriented design and
programming with a real-world case study in electronic healthcare development. The objectives are:
This course provides an overview of electronic healthcare design and development, with a
thorough grounding in the Java and UML languages. Using a mixture of demonstration and
practical sessions, students will gain a sound appreciation electronic healthcare design and
development using open standards.
The practice sessions focus on developing and deploying real applications in electronic
healthcare. This is a lab-based course in which students gain hands-on experience by developing
the electronic healthcare applications.

IBM 2010 Healthcare Industry Skills Innovation Award Proposal

Electronic Healthcare Design and Development

Course Objectives:

Understand how to incorporate technology into the provision of electronic healthcare

Understand basic object-oriented concepts

Provide an understanding of the fundamentals of the Java programming language

Apply an iterative, use case-driven process to the development of a robust design model

Use the UML to represent the design model

Apply the OO concepts abstraction, encapsulation, inheritance, hierarchy, modularity, and

polymorphism to the development of a robust design model

Design an electronic healthcare system using object-oriented software engineering paradigm

Students will learn:

Basics of electronic healthcare terminologies and applications

Practical knowledge in the UML diagrams and notations

How to build object-oriented model for their project using UML

The core Java syntax and semantics

How to use Java in electronic healthcare systems

The following provides an outline of the topics covered in this proposed course:
Overview of Electronic Healthcare
- Healthcare Informatics
- Information Management and Evaluation
- Electronic Health Records
- Computerized Order Entry
- Health Care Terminologies and Coding
- Clinical Decision Support Systems
- Public Health Informatics
- Patient Care Management
- Consumer Health
- Open Standards in Electronic Healthcare
Object Oriented Programming
- Introduction to Object Orientation
- Encapsulation
- Inheritance and Polymorphism
Introduction to Java Programming
- What is Java
- What can be developed with Java
- J2SE, J2EE, J2ME
- Evolution of Java
The Core Java Language
- Identifiers and Reserved Words
- Primitive data types
- Expressions and operators
- Iteration
- Decision making
- Classes and objects
- Arrays

IBM 2010 Healthcare Industry Skills Innovation Award Proposal

Electronic Healthcare Design and Development

Classes and Interfaces

- Constructing and Destroying Objects
- Encapsulation
- Inheritance
- Abstract classes and methods
- Interfaces
- Static members
- Inner classes
- Anonymous classes
Java I/O
- Input/Output streams
- Java Exception handling
Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with UML
- UML Diagrams
- Class Diagrams
- Use-Case Diagrams
- Interaction Diagrams
- State Diagrams
- Activity Diagrams
- Component and Deployment Diagrams
- Design Patterns
Electronic Healthcare Implementation and Cases
- Eclipse and Websphere
- IBM Health Integration Framework
- IBM InfoSphere Clinical Analytics
- IBM WebSphere Message Broker
- IBM Healthcare Industry Toolbox for WebSphere
- IBM WebSphere Transformation Extender Pack
- IBM WebSphere Healthcare Content Pack
Case Study
The case study involves the development of an electronic healthcare system. This includes
building (all in Java):
A configuration utility as a graphical user interface
A full concurrent Web server
Appointments and scheduling
Admission, Discharge, and Transfer (ADT)
Prescription Order Entry
Dietary Planning
Routine Clinical Notes
Lab and Radiology Orders.
Picture Archiving.
Smart Card Identification
This case study highlights a complete end to end system implemented in Java and highlights the
advantages and disadvantages of the language as well as providing practical experience of the
important Java application domains for electronic healthcare development.

IBM 2010 Healthcare Industry Skills Innovation Award Proposal

Electronic Healthcare Design and Development

In order to develop this course, the following milestones are proposed:

Milestones
Q1

Year 1
Q2 Q3

Q4

Recruitment of teaching assistant, literature

and textbook search
Design of Lecture Notes
Development of Laboratory Exercises and
Solutions
Development of Case Study
Documentation and Course Book Writing
Finalization of Lecture Notes

The first milestone will design the lecture notes after recruiting a teaching assistant and
performing literature search for suitable textbooks. The first milestone will take approximately 3
months for completion.

The second milestone will develop the laboratory exercises, solutions, and case study for the
course. The laboratory exercises focus on designing and developing applications using UML
and Java. The case study involves the development of an electronic healthcare application,
which involves a complete end to end system implemented in Java, and the integration of open
standards such as IBM InfoSphere Clinical Analytics, IBM WebSphere Message Broker with
support for HL7, IBM Healthcare Industry Toolbox for WebSphere Portal, IBM WebSphere
Transformation Extender Industry Pack for Healthcare, and IBM WebSphere Healthcare Content
Pack. The second milestone will take approximately 6 months for completion.

The final milestone will perform the final documentation for the project, which includes the
writing of the course book and finalizing the lecture notes. The final milestone will take
approximately 3 months for completion.
References:
1. Tsai, Flora S. Object-Oriented Software Engineering, McGraw-Hill, 2006.
2.

The IBM Health Integration Framework: Accelerating solutions for smarter healthcare, IBM
White Paper, 2010.

3. Weiss, G. "Welcome to the (almost) digital hospital", IEEE Spectrum, pp. 44-49, Mar. 2002.
4. Tsai, Flora S. Security Issues in E-Healthcare, Journal of Medical and Biological
Engineering, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 209-214, 2010.
Amount of funding requested, in US Dollars
We request $10,000 for this project. There is currently no funding for this project.

IBM 2010 Healthcare Industry Skills Innovation Award Proposal

Electronic Healthcare Design and Development

Impact in demonstrating the problem/solution for Smarter Healthcare IT solutions and

open source technologies
The EHR is the key in development of a truly digital hospital, where everyday operations and
record-keeping are carried out and maintained almost exclusively with computers. EHRs have been
a healthcare priority for years in many countries. However, progress in implementing EHRs has
lagged behind the latest information technologies available, and only a minority of hospitals and
clinics actually use them. This project will demonstrate to the information/ computing industry that
the time and cost in designing and implementing an EHR system need not be prohibitively high.
With this pilot project, it is anticipated that we will be able to sign up at least one of the local
hospitals or medical clinics for a trial run. IBM can benefit by the usage of open source Smarter
Healthcare IT solutions for the implementation of the EHR. In doing so, Smarter Healthcare IT
solutions will be seen as good choices any healthcare systems requiring multi-language, multiplatform, and multi-vendor supported environment. Using Eclipse for this project will also promote
the open source standard for software development. In addition, IBM will appear as a sponsor of
this project, which can potentially increase its visibility within the medical community in Singapore,
Asia, and the rest of the world.
This course can also be integrated into the final year undergraduate subject "Object-Oriented
Software Engineering Design", which covers object-oriented design and programming using UML
and Java with theoretical and hands-on laboratory exercises. As part of the final assignment,
students divide into groups of 3-4 to design and develop a subsystem of the EHR system using
UML, Java, Eclipse, with open standards in Smarter Healthcare IT solutions such as IBM
WebSphere Message Broker with support for HL7, IBM Healthcare Industry Toolbox for WebSphere
Portal, IBM WebSphere Transformation Extender Industry Pack for Healthcare, and IBM
WebSphere Healthcare Content Pack.
Resources
This project will be managed by Dr. Flora Tsai of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in
Singapore. A brief biography appears below.
Dr. Flora Tsai is a graduate of MIT. Columbia University, and NTU with degrees in Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science. Since June 2001, she has been teaching Object-Oriented
Software Engineering Design (UML and Java), Software Engineering and related subjects at NTU.
She has previously conducted numerous professional short courses for the industry, including
Object-Oriented Software Engineering with UML, Java, and Eclipse, Object-Oriented Design Using
UML, Java, and Design Patterns, Object-Oriented Analysis & Design Using UML, Software
Engineering Essentials, and Object-Oriented Programming Using C++ for Real-Time Embedded
Systems. Dr. Tsai has edited three textbooks related to the subjects: Object-Oriented Software
Engineering, Cyber Security, and E-Business Management. She was also involved in chairing the
Eclipse Technology Summit, held at NTU in May 2006. Dr. Tsai was a recipient of the 2005 IBM
Eclipse Innovation Award and principal investigator of a Novelty Detection Grant with Centre for
Strategic Infocomm Technologies. She is currently a senior member of IEEE, member of ACM, and
member in the IBM Academic Initiative.

IBM 2010 Healthcare Industry Skills Innovation Award Proposal