xml data model for a health database?

Question

As part of my university assignment I have to create a xml data model for electronic health monitoring and record keeping, now I understand the concept of XML and the basic structures, however I am a little confused regarding the best way to structure it for example; I have one xml document (see structure below), but I would like to ask if it is a good idea to keep peripheral devices and medical records within the same document under 'health'. As this can make a single document quite large.

<health>
    <pat>
        <person>
            <name></name>
            <gender></gender>
            <mobile></mobile>
            <email></email>
        </person>
        <address>
            <house></house>
            <street></street>
            <city></city>
            <pc></pc>
        </address>
    </pat>
    <Contact>
        <name></name>
        <tel></tel>
    </Contact>
    <doctor>
        <title></title>
        <firstname></firstname>
        <surname></surname>
        <tel></tel>
    </doctor>
    <drug>
        <name></name>
        <quantity></quantity>
        <cost></cost>
        <expirydate></expirydate>
        <prescribedate></prescribedate>
    </drug>
    <peripheraldata>
        <temperature></temperature>
    </peripheraldata>
    <records>
        <warnings></warnings>
        <symptoms></symptoms>
        <diagnosis></diagnosis>
        <date></date>
    </records>
</health>

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Without a statement of requirements, it's very hard to help you. HL7 is a schema for health information in XML, it is thousands of pages long and incredibly complex. You obviously want something simpler, but how simple can it be before it becomes simplistic?

The question of how much information to put in a document is always a bit of a challenge with XML. One document per patient? One document per patient episode? If patients have appointments at clinics, do those appointments live with the patient, or with the clinic, or with the doctor, or all three? It all depends what you're trying to achieve, and you haven't said.