Ontology-Based assessment of functional redundancy in health information systems

Abstract

The paper introduces a formal definition of functional redundancy to determine non-redundant health information system architectures, in order to support information management of, in particular, hospital information systems. We specify an ontology, which is linked to the Three-Layer Graph-Based Meta Model (3LGM2) and based on enterprise functions and application systems of (health) information systems. A so called functional redundancy rate (FRR) is introduced and elucidated by an example. An algorithm for calculating non redundant health information system architectures is presented. Functional redundancy is a key performance indicator for the quality and efficiency of (health) information systems. With FRR it can now be formally described and quantitatively analyzed. Using 3LGM2 based models of information systems, the calculation of FRR does not need further efforts.