A process for specifying integration for multi-tier applications in healthcare

Integration of the heterogeneous application systems in healthcare is needed to support the clinical and administrative work, patient-centric care, regional interoperability and utilisation of both valuable legacy systems and new technologies. The integration activity is complicated, and must be supported by flexible processes and methods. The integration methods should support the evaluation and specification of different integration approaches, standards and technologies on many interoperability levels. We introduce a process for specifying many integration decisions for a given integration situation. The process is part of an integration method, which is validated in PlugIT project in Finland.