Asynch XDS.b Profile

1. Proposed Workitem: Asynch XDS.b Profile

Proposal Editor: Vassil Peytchev, Roberto Ruggeri
Editor: N/A
Date: N/A (Wiki keeps history)
Version: N/A (Wiki keeps history)
Domain: IT Infrastructure

2. The Problem

IHE XDS.b implies synchronous communication between actors: document consumers, sources, registries and repositories. While this can work in a tightly controlled environment, it is generally sub-optimal in environments where multiple intermediaries are present or where a high latency occurs.

3. Key Use Case

Scenario 1: in XCA the gateway can issue separate queries to the federated affinity domains in parallel without having to hang until each one is satisfied. Responses can be received asynchronously and collated for the requestor. The response time will be shortened as the results are retrieved in parallel instead of sequentially.

Scenario 2 (on demand query): in the integrated document source/document repository the xds document (medical summary, allergy list…) is generated on the fly instead and persisted. Allowing for asynch responses reduces the time that the document source is left hanging waiting for a response

Scenario 3: asynch xds allows for multiple responses for the same request: pagination of results (return x records at a time), streaming of documents (return x Kilobytes at a time)…

Scenario 4: asynch xds allows for scenarios where actors are not connected at the same time (off-line) making store-and-forward scenarios possible through the use of intermediaries.

4. Standards & Systems

No other standards on top of the ones already implemented in XDS.b are necessary.

5. Discussion

This is a natural progression of XDS.b to satisfy scenarios identified during the 2007-2008 season