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The above form has been templated from archetypes: each red area contains some specific (usually only a minority of) data elements from one archetype.
How do Archetypes and Templates work together?
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An easy way to think about archetypes and ontologies is based on understanding what they say. Archetypes model information, while ontologies model describe (aspects of) reality. For example an archetype for "systemic arterial blood pressure measurement" is a model of what information should be captured for this kind of measurement - usually systolic and diastolic pressure, plus (optionally) patient state (position, exertion level) and instrument or other protocol information. In contrast, an ontology would describe in more or less detail what blood pressure is. This archetype tutorial (PPT) provides a detailed example on slide 12.
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See the openEHR Wiki ontology page for more on ontologies and openEHR.
What is ADL and AOM?
Archetype Definition Language, or ADL, is a the formal language for expressing archetypes, and can be categorised as a knowledge description language. It provides a formal, abstract syntax for describing constraints on any domain entity whose data is described by an information model (e.g. expressed in UML/OCL). It is primarily useful when very generic information models are used for representing all data in a system, for example, where the logical concepts Patient, Doctor and Hospital might all be represented using the class Party, Address, and related generic classes. Archetypes are then used to constrain the valid structures of instances of these generic classes to represent the desired domain concepts. In this way future-proof information systems can be built - relatively simple information models and database schemas can be defined, and archetypes supply the specific modelling, completely outside the software.
The 'AOM', or Archetype Object Model, is a sibling specification to ADL, defining the object structures and semantics of a parsed archetype. It is primarily used by tool builders.
The openEHR ADL/AOM 1.4 and 1.5 2 specifications.
(For math/logic geeks: ADL syntax is congruent with Michael Kifer's Frame Logic 'queries').
Is ADL a Standard?
ADL and the AOM are open specifications of openEHR. The 1.4 AOM release was adopted as ISO standard ISO 13606-2.
Is there a Reference Validator or Compiler for Archetypes?
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The openEHR Clinical Knowledge Manager (CKM) contains the archetypes managed internationally at openEHR.org. Other archetypes may be managed at a national level within your country or some other organisation.
Is ADL a Standard?
ADL and the AOM are open specifications of openEHR. The 1.4 AOM release was adopted as ISO standard ISO 13606-2.
What about governance? (Multiple authors, versions, replication...)
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