Question

2. Describe in detail how Service Orientated Architecture (SOA) or Web Orientated Architecture (WOA) concepts would specifically be relevant to enabling a number of the key foundation services within the My Health Record (myHR). Please note: Your answer should specifically address myHR services rather than discuss about SOA/WOA technology in general.

Answer 1

Healthcare portals go through tremendous amounts of challenges due to the growth in system portfolios. It is not cheap to acquire and then integrate the systems. There are also demands as the time goes by. There are clinical requirements, revenue cycle, business functions, and interoperability.

SOA or service oriented architecture provides management principles to reuse and share resources of the system and doesn't require handling or re-engineering old systems. SOA helps in combining old solutions with new capabilities. Shared services can be used and aligned with other business processes. It helps in strengthening the interoperability and reducing the synchronization demands between different systems.

SOA environment offers system assets that are easy to be accessed from different parts of the organization and still remain isolated. Especially in healthcare portals, where a single system has to manage the entire enterprise, it is very helpful. SOA helps in facilitating the use of different instances in the system and works with complex networks. The unfulfilled processing demands can be met without having to buy expensive systems. The processes in the healthcare portal can be standardized as well and it helps in increasing the value of the services.