Virtually Priceless Thoughts

NOTE: This post is a follow up from the overall post on what does a clinical architect need to know.

Being able to consider the full scope of design is, I think, an important piece for someone who – as an organization’s Clinical Architect – is leading the decision making around how the clinical systems fit together (or consciously do not fit together) to meet the organization’s goals.

While clinical leaders often think of systems from a care perspective, they often have not had training in the areas of information systems. With the complex CISs in play in many large organizations today, this kind of structured thinking is key.

Enterprise Architecture is the logic, processes, and products that connects the organization’s operations to its ICT infrastructure design.

This architecture should span the organization, not just IM/IT.

National Institutes for Health have their description of Enterprise Architecture.

There are many approaches to Enterprise Architecture. For organizations that are developing their architecture capabilities, it does not make sense to go too heavy, nor invest in a proprietary approach when there are good, published, open approaches. TOGAF, for example, is a good, open standard to enterprise architecture. It can be tailored to be light enough for early use and can the grow with organizations as they are ready to grow. Version 9 is available online. The figure on the side is a nice cyclical approach to EA management from TOGAF.

The Zachman Framework (wikipedia link) was developed in the 1980s at IBM and has been adopted, adapted, and revised since then. The Enterprise Architecture Center of Excellence now is its home. There are several tools to members (I am not a member). I have always thought of the Zachman Framework as something that is heavier to implement than other frameworks, such as TOGAF. I do like how the Zachman Framework ensures goals are explicit in the modelling processes.

I think what is important to keep in mind, for me, is that this level of architecture is much more socio-technical in its approach than simply a technical architecture.

There are others, certainly, but I thought I would list two. Please suggest others that you think are applicable to healthcare.

Related posts:

1. What does a Clinical Architect Need to Know? I have been asked a question by a colleague at...

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