XML and the VITAL standard: the document-oriented approach for open telemedicine applications.

This paper describes an effort to create a common, document-oriented architecture for the interchange of medical data in healthcare telemedicine applications. Key components are: The VITAL standard specifying a common (medical device independent) representation of Vital Signs Information and the Extensible Markup Language (XML) specifying the document specifications form, an architecture that, in aggregate, define the semantics and structural constraints necessary for the exchange of vital signs and related medical data. The modelling and design technique for the described application has been the Unified Modelling Language (UML). The XMI (XML Metadata Interchange Format) of the Object Management Group (OMG) provided the meta-model for this application, for sharing objects using XML, via the transfer of the application's UML model to XML documents and DTDs.