Aspect oriented programming for modularization of concerns for improving interoperability in healthcare application

Abstract

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is an ideal Web Services based solution for achieving efficient healthcare interoperability. However, incorporation of non-functional specifications such as logging, authorization, transaction etc. in web services based interoperable healthcare information system leads to code tangling (significant dependencies between system) and code scattering (code duplication) problems which reduces the revision and reuse of web services. Aspect Oriented Software Development is an emerging developing approach utilizing modularization to support rapid data interchange among various healthcare providers in a heterogeneous distributed environment. The visionary promise of Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) is to increase overall quality of software design and implementation by decreasing the problems of code scattering and code tangling while maintaining high level of abstraction in enterprise application integration. The introduction of aspects substantially increases modularity and helps in achieving cleaner modularization of concerns. In this research we propose introduction of aspects in healthcare system and show how AOP helps in a cleaner design and substantial code savings in SOA based healthcare interoperability resulting in modularization of crosscutting concerns. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.