HIP CDR
All health data in one place – secure and interoperable
The HIP Clinical Data Repository (HIP CDR) is the data layer of the Health Intelligence Platform (HIP). It brings clinical, administrative, demographic and unstructured health data together, maps it to international standards including openEHR and FHIR, and makes it available for queries through open interfaces. The HIP CDR meets all functional and regulatory requirements for providing health data to clinical applications in real time and provides the foundation for innovative applications in care delivery and research.
Benefit
One longitudinal health record for your organisation
Comparable, not simply exchangeable
Open data stores provide the foundation
Bringing health data together from different systems is not enough for a successful digital strategy. Data must also be understandable and usable – the prerequisite for building an ecosystem of innovative data-driven applications. With its open data stores, the HIP CDR provides the right foundation.
Challenge
When data remains in silos
Growing demands on healthcare IT create new challenges. Although most data is now available digitally, projects still often fail because data cannot be integrated into operational processes or accessed when needed. In most cases, data remains siloed across specialist applications: distributed, held in vendor-specific formats and without a common interface. This creates an often unpredictable risk for every digitalisation project. Each analysis, new application and reporting requirement starts again with data harmonisation. Rather than contributing to a long-term data strategy, every interoperability project creates another data island.
Solution
A shared foundation that evolves with your needs
With the HIP CDR, every digitalisation initiative builds on a common foundation. Health data is stored centrally, semantically annotated and accessible to authorised systems and users through open interfaces. Projects can begin delivering value without months of data-integration work on the critical path. New data products and clinical applications build on the shared longitudinal health record. The data, models and integrations created for one project remain available for future initiatives – so every project helps the next one move faster and at lower cost.
The HIP CDR supports the interoperability standards organisations need for different objectives. It supports targeted information exchange through FHIR as effectively as the long-term development of a detailed longitudinal health record that captures the full clinical context.
By consistently using open standards and open-source technologies, the HIP CDR provides genuine vendor independence. Together with open interfaces, this means there is neither a technical nor a contractual reason for your data to remain tied to a single supplier.
How the HIP CDR works
The HIP CDR provides the full capabilities of an electronic health record. Data is integrated through open interfaces, processed within workflows or captured directly through forms as part of primary documentation. This creates a robust, scalable information-system architecture built entirely on open standards and open-source components. Your digitalisation investments are therefore protected for the long term.
Both openEHR and FHIR can be used for your projects. For the long-term storage of detailed clinical information, openEHR provides flexible, clinically intelligible data models that represent the full depth and breadth of clinical documentation. The openEHR approach allows data models to be reused across organisations and use cases, supporting a consistent data model. Its powerful query language, Archetype Query Language (AQL), provides direct access to every data point.
The HIP CDR’s FHIR server also enables data-driven use cases to be implemented quickly and supports an early return on investment. Alongside administrative and clinical data, it can process nationally specified FHIR data structures without friction.
Both technologies are combined according to project needs. A shared FHIR API enables applications to access the entire HIP CDR data estate, regardless of the store in which data resides. This gives healthcare organisations maximum future security for their evolving data requirements.
The HIP integration component translates between standards and connects the CDR to the message flows of the existing architecture. It is designed to work with HL7 v2, FHIR and local adaptations of these standards, enabling flexible integration of the CDR into the system landscape. A library of data models and mappings is built up across customer projects and made available free of charge.
Your benefits
- No vendor lock-in: open standards, open-source components and open interfaces
- Model clinical concepts once and use them consistently across departments, sites and organisations
- Extend the data model at runtime without changing application code
- Full support for openEHR and FHIR: the right approach for your data strategy
- Data-level access controls; every change is logged and versioned
- Comprehensive mapping library and broad system-integration options
Enterprise-ready clinical data repository
The HIP CDR makes interoperability standards straightforward and secure to use across your organisation. Open standards such as openEHR and FHIR protect your vendor independence. Yet turning that openness into a dependable system for production use in critical infrastructure requires more than implementing a standard or deploying an open-source reference implementation.
The HIP CDR is consistently built on open standards and open components, complemented by the functions required for professional operations: multi-tenancy to run multiple projects and organisations on one instance, attribute-based access control down to data level, complete auditing in accordance with IHE ATNA, and an event-driven architecture for scalability and resilience.
This combines the openness of the underlying standards and components with the dependability required to operate in a healthcare organisation.
Key features
Multi-tenancy
Complete logical separation of data holdings and configurations. Different projects and organisations can be centrally managed, each with its own tenant.
openEHR Store
A highly scalable implementation of the openEHR specification. It provides comprehensive support for the Reference Model and Archetype Query Language, enhanced with enterprise capabilities for access control, auditing and scalability.
FHIR Store
A native FHIR store for FHIR resources in R4 and STU3, with R5 in preparation. Supports ISiK, MIOs and the core data set of Germany’s Medical Informatics Initiative.
Terminology service
An integrated FHIR terminology server for managing terminologies and value sets. It can be used directly for data validation and mapping, with support for ICD-10, LOINC, SNOMED CT and many further terminologies.
Object store
S3-compatible storage for unstructured content such as documents and imaging data, either as attachments to openEHR and FHIR records or as source material for later structured ingestion.
Queries via AQL and FHIR Search
Semantically precise queries across the clinical core and standards-compliant FHIR searches across the full data estate, regardless of storage location.
Identity and access management, auditing and administration
Attribute-based access control down to data level, integration with existing identity providers via OpenID Connect, and logging of all access in accordance with IHE ATNA. Tenants, permissions and templates are managed through an administration interface.
Event-driven architecture
The HIP CDR uses a message queue for scalability and resilience. External systems can be notified of CDR events in real time – for example, to initiate workflows when specified data is stored.
Administration interfaces
Convenient configuration and administration through an integrated interface for user management, data models, query creation (AQL), organisational units and more.
Software development kits
Freely available libraries enable rapid, vendor-independent development of applications based on the CDR. They are complemented by no-code and low-code tools within the HIP ecosystem.
Data protection and regulatory assurance
Clinical environments require more than functionality. They require compliance. The HIP CDR meets both requirements:
- Attribute-based access control operates down to data level. It supports permissions within an organisation as well as record-sharing scenarios between care providers.
- Every read and write access to record data is logged in accordance with IHE ATNA and can be reviewed by auditors. Security-relevant events, including log-ins and log-outs, are also recorded in the ATNA log.
- Every change to a patient record is versioned; no information is overwritten. This makes it possible to establish which information was available at a particular time and in which context. Deletion concepts are implemented on a project-specific basis.
- Deploy in an EU cloud or on premises: your data remains within the infrastructure you select.
HIP CDR: Insights into the solution
One model. One terminology. Traceable access.
AQL Composer: Compose and execute AQL queries against the openEHR Store on the HIP.
Model Designer: Build reusable openEHR templates from a repository of archetypes.
Current use cases
One shared data model for many source systems
Comparable across departments and sites
Bring data from different primary systems into a single clinical model and terminology, so that the same query asks – and answers – the same question everywhereVendor-independent data management alongside primary systems
Without replacing the HIS
Manage clinical data in an open, extensible model while retaining existing primary systems – and regain leverage in negotiations with vendors.A data foundation for in-house and partner applications
Stable contracts instead of bespoke logic
Build applications on standardised APIs, events and a shared data model, rather than creating a dedicated data store and coding logic for every application.The HIP CDR is the prerequisite for an IT architecture that remains viable in the long term and enables you to position your organisation strategically and sustainably for the future. In short: liberate your data. Now.
Designed for
Hospitals and hospital groups
Bring clinical data from many systems into a shared model and make it comparable across departments and sites – without replacing primary systems.
Solutions for hospitals and hospital groupsSoftware providers
Procure a standards-based data layer – including a data model, terminology and permissions model – as a component, rather than building and maintaining it separately for every product.
Solutions for software providersHealth regions and data spaces
Manage data from many organisations in a shared model with curated terminology, with clear roles and permissions for every participating organisation.
Solutions for health regions and data spaces