A Canonical Data Model defines “What is Canon”, and lays out a structure of how all data is represented and perceived.  Our Canonical Model, known as the “Parsed Data Block” is a well-defined XML based structure, that allows us to map any known data point for a given patient message (i.e. CCD/CDA, HL7, FHIR, CSV) to a specific spot in the Canonical Model. 

For instance, when looking at a message with our Parsed Data Block, the name of a patient will always be found at the XML Path: /Document/Patient/Name and having possible attributes like @first,@last, @full and so on, regardless of what type of message was given.  Paths like this exist for each and every possible piece of patient data.

After years of working with the various healthcare standards, we have mapped most every data source type into and back out of our Canonical Model. We have packaged these libraries and several tools into our Alchemy system, “turning your healthcare data into gold.”

This allows us to immediately convert ANY source data from its original state INTO our model, perform any work we want on it, and send it back out either as the original format, or even as a different one. 

The beauty of this design is that once it is in the Canonical Model, any developer that understands basic XML can then work with the data, and either build triggers, modifiers, or analysis tools.