A Digital System for Managing HL7/CDA Electronic Medical Records Stored in iButtons<sup>®</sup>

Abstract

The goal of this research was to develop a digital system that could allow managing electronic medical records (EMRs) codified under specifications of the Health Level 7/Clinical Document Architecture (HL7/CDA) international standard, and saving them in a portable digital storage device called iButton ®. To this end, an USB-based hardware interface for reading and storing EMRs in iButtons was designed and implemented. In addition, a software application for invoking read/ write operations on stored EMRs and showing their content on a graphical user interface was also developed, following the Extreme Programming (XP) software development methodology and using Visual Basic .NET as programming language. Tests conducted on the hardware interface showed that it was able to recognize any iButton type, reading and writing data on them as well. Moreover, the system helped in creating empty EMRs in conformance with the HL7/CDA standard, adding and viewing information, and updating it in the iButton. This system offers an easy way for managing and visualizing medical records codified in HL7/CDA, and allows patients to take their updated medical history with them everywhere.