What is the OCL Community Roadmap?
The Open Concept Lab (OCL) Community Roadmap, created for and by our community, lays out a set of goals for OCL’s tools, services, and the community at large, and follows this general approach:
- Goals are aspirational– not commitments– representing community priorities and requirements, and are only achieved through community contributions and funded projects.
- Community members are encouraged to collaborate on and champion goals – Resource gaps are noted alongside each goal below. Contact a community member or email info@openconceptlab.org to get involved and be listed as a stakeholder for one of the goals.
- Open roadmap development process – Input is solicited through community meetings and a draft is published publicly for final review and prioritization.
- Timelines and priorities depend on resources – Community contributions, volunteers, and client needs determine when and whether goals are achieved.
- Roadmap is a living document – Our goals evolve with the community, so the roadmap will be updated throughout the year to reflect progress and contributing organizations. Comments are welcome at any time!
A dedicated OCL Chat thread will remain open throughout 2024 for suggestions, comments, reactions, and questions from the community. All input is welcome!
2024 Community Initiative: “Year of Community”
2024 is OCL’s “Year of Community”, where our success is measured not simply by the number of feature enhancements made to the tools, but by the strengthening of our community of practice. So what does this look like?
First, we want to strengthen our existing community activities that are working well, like our quarterly showcases, weekly community calls, Smart Dictionaries, and meeting with our community at in-person events like OHIE24 in Sri Lanka.
Second, we have a lot of ideas for things that we may start this year, based on community interest and resources:
- Do a better job telling the OCL story by documenting our community’s history and end the year with a Community/Impact Report,
- Review and strengthen our OCL Community structure and processes by walking through the World Bank Community of Practice Framework: “Purpose-People-Practice”,
- Adopt a Community and Developer Code of Conduct,
- Amplify our Partnerships and Integrations with other Digital Global Good (e.g. OpenMRS, OpenELIS, OpenFn) and Standards Development Organizations (e.g. HL7, LOINC, WHO, SNOMED International),
- Start an OCL Users Group – we are always seeking user input, and organizing this into a small group that meets, and
- Explore launching a new OCL Community Fellowship to help with all of these new activities!
More details to come soon. In the meantime, take a look at the initial announcement here for more information, and as always, reach out if you’d like to get involved:
Celebrating 2023 and a sneak preview of OCL’s 2024 Year of Community!
What is OCLv3, and how does it relate to the Smart Dictionary Initiative?
In 2023, we described a vision for smarter dictionary management in OCL. This is a multi-year initiative intended to unlock powerful workflows to help users make the most of advanced terminology features, allowing them to leverage curated content like WHO SMART Guidelines, adhere to best practices, and reduce administrative burden. This vision includes the following:
- Guided workflows will help users to quickly complete the most common terminology management tasks, like creating mappings and dynamic references
- Seamless integration of FHIR into the TermBrowser
- Nudge users toward best practices for terminology management, like reuse of curated content
OCL version 3 (OCLv3) is the first major milestone in the OCL Smart Dictionary initiative, making significant leaps toward the initiative’s three key goals. It intends to impact all of OCL’s web assets, including the TermBrowser, the Terminology Server (i.e. the API), the Community Website, and the entirety of OCL’s visual design. Learn more about this on OCL’s blog.
OCL’s 2024 Roadmap will cover some, but not all, of the Smart Dictionary initiative. The Smart Dictionary will continue in the coming years, well after the initial launch of OCLv3 that will occur in phases, starting in mid-2024. We look forward to engaging with you all in whatever ways you can contribute!
Summary Table: 2024 OCL Roadmap
| Category | Goal | Collaborators |
|---|---|---|
| Tools: OCL FHIR Core
Use OCL to author or adapt FHIR-based computable guidelines (i.e. SMART Guidelines) into your information architecture. |
Implement canonical URL registries and incorporate into $resolveReference | HL7, WHO |
| Publish FHIR Content on OCL Online | HL7, WHO, Regenstrief | |
| Integrate FHIR into OCL TermBrowser | HL7, WHO, Regenstrief | |
| Analytics FHIR usage in OCL | – | |
| Enhance OCL FHIR Core to be fully compliant with FHIR R4 | HL7, WHO, PEPFAR | |
| Tools: Smart Dictionary Management Workflows
Create clear, intuitive workflows for establishing and maintaining terminology content |
Streamline creation and management of concept dictionaries, collections and value sets | OpenMRS, Regenstrief, HL7, WHO |
| Facilitate reuse and adaptation of terminology content using OCL’s tools | OpenMRS, WHO, Regenstrief, CIEL | |
| Support workflows for Change Management in OCL | OpenMRS, WHO, Regenstrief, Kenya, CIEL | |
| Tools: Search Experience
Enhance user’s experience with searching in OCL, both globally and within specific repositories, to find and assess relevant content |
Implement advanced searching capabilities in OCL TermBrowser | All |
| Enhance OCL’s capabilities to display relevant information for concepts e.g. using mappings and comparisons | OpenMRS, CIEL | |
| Enhance OCL search to promote timely return of the most relevant and trusted content for users e.g. “Walled Garden” | OpenMRS, Regenstrief | |
| Tools: Multi-server Browsing & Management
Enable the TermBrowser to interact with terminology resources from multiple OCL and FHIR terminology servers (TS) simultaneously, including the WHO ICD-11 FHIR service. |
Enable seamless connection between OCL and an external FHIR terminology server | WHO |
| Support referencing resources from an external terminology service for making value sets and concept maps | WHO | |
| Develop features for “Smart” Bulk Importing/Exporting and Content syndication | HL7, WHO, Regenstrief | |
| Tools: Standards Reuse and Collaboration
Streamline cooperation between terminology publishers and implementing community, and reuse standard content in your own work to facilitate interoperability. |
Promote usage of standardized content in OCL for cleaner, consistent terminology use | OpenMRS |
| Facilitate communication on terminology content between terminology publishers and implementers | OpenMRS, WHO, Regenstrief | |
| Tools: Cybersecurity & Compliance
Comply with strict cybersecurity requirements of government/enterprise deployments, particularly for WHO to deploy OCL in their Azure and for PEPFAR to use OCL Online in production. |
Make progress toward OWASP Top 10 Security Measures | PEPFAR |
| Implement advanced permissions framework | Kenya | |
| Achieve WHO cybersecurity and accessibility compliance, including internationalization support in the TermBrowser | WHO | |
| Community: Community Website
Enhancing OCL’s primary website to support discovery and connection of users to the appropriate parts of the OCL tools and community |
Launch the redesigned version 3 (v3) of OCL’s Community Website | All |
| Provide users with all key information for using OCL and participating in the community | All | |
| Community: Events
Community-supported events to provide community members the opportunity to connect on works-in-progress and progress to be made in the tools and in terminology |
Host community calls where all OCL-related questions, requests, discussion, etc. occur | All |
| Connect all OCL user topics to relevant communities, including those of OCL, OpenHIE, HL7, OpenMRS, WHO, etc. | All | |
| Host official OCL events to engage community and improve OCL’s tools and content | All | |
| Community: Communications
Promote the work of the community and tools and the opportunity for community members to further engage |
Regularly promote updates regarding tools/tech to the community | All |
| Regularly promote the community to the Terminology management world | All | |
| Establish a hub for connection across different communication mediums so the community intuitively knows how to best engage | All | |
| Community: Governance
Efforts that the secretariat team pushes forward to advance and promote the work of the community |
Document partnerships and integrations with other communities, global goods, etc. | All |
| Publish clear governance of OCL as a product and as a community | All | |
| Community: User Support
Establish processes, tools and documentation to provide user support, report bugs, etc. |
Establish clear help desk support and troubleshooting process for users | All |
| Create clear paths for open, transparent ticketing that users participate in and receive support in a timely manner | All |
Detailed Goals: OCL 2024 Roadmap
Tools |
|
OCL FHIR CoreUse OCL to author or adapt FHIR-based computable guidelines (i.e. SMART Guidelines) into your information architecture. |
|
| Goal: Implement canonical URL registries and incorporate into $resolveReference | Type: Capability |
| Description: OCL will implement the use of canonical URLs in several capacities, including as resource identifiers, in the definition of OCL’s references and mappings, and for creating registries of canonical URLs that contribute to a “Walled Garden” for improved searching and URL resolution. | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
WHO, HL7 |
Target Completion:
Q2 2024 |
| Goal: Publish FHIR Content on OCL Online | Type: Capability |
| Description: OCL Online will publish key terminology resources that are used in the global community for FHIR profiling, SMART Guideline authoring, etc. | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
WHO, HL7 |
Target Completion: Q3 2024 |
| Goal: Integrate FHIR into OCL TermBrowser | Type: Capability |
| Description: OCL’s user interface will incorporate workflows and capabilities for building, managing, and accessing FHIR-formatted terminology content that can be integrated into FHIR-ready systems and processes. | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
WHO, HL7 |
Target Completion:
Q3 2024 |
| Goal: Monitor FHIR usage in OCL | Type: Monitoring and User Experience |
| Description: OCL will incorporate FHIR usage as part of its routine monitoring capabilities to inform iteration, commonly used FHIR resources, and other insights. | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
— |
Target Completion:
Q4 2024 |
| Goal: Enhance OCL FHIR Core to be fully compliant with FHIR R4 | Type: Capability |
| Description: OCL’s FHIR Core will fully comply with the FHIR R4 standard for CodeSystem, ValueSet, and ConceptMap resources by the end of 2024, including operations and resources specified by the IHE Sharing ValueSets and ConceptMaps (SVCM) profile. | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
WHO, HL7, PEPFAR |
Target Completion: Q4 2024 |
Smart Dictionary Management WorkflowsCreate clear, intuitive workflows for establishing and maintaining terminology content |
|
| Goal: Streamline creation and management of concept dictionaries, collections and value sets | Type: Capability |
| Description: OCL will incorporate workflows and capabilities that support fast and intuitive startup of concept dictionaries, namely for OpenMRS Concept Dictionaries, which generally consist of a combination of standard and custom terminology content. Common repository templates will be available for users to select and establish the repository type that suits their use case. Workflows will be clear and intuitive enough that new users can create and begin building a concept dictionary immediately after accessing OCL for the first time. | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
OpenMRS, HL7, WHO |
Target Completion:
Q2 2024 |
| Goal: Facilitate content reuse and adaptation with OCL’s tools | Type: Capability |
| Description: OCL will incorporate improved workflows for reusing and/or adapting standard terminology content, with the intent of minimizing the creation and maintenance of custom terminology content that fills gaps in the available standards on OCL Online. | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
OpenMRS, WHO, CIEL |
Target Completion:
Q3 2024 |
| Goal: Support workflows for Change Management in OCL | Type: Capability |
| Description: OCL will support the user in responding to updates in terminology content made by terminology publishers, allowing the user to accept and reject, as appropriate, the upstream changes that may affect their dictionary content and its application to their use case. The entry of new or otherwise altered concept names, mappings, and other attributes to standard terminology concepts will be monitorable and controllable by the terminology users. | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
OpenMRS, WHO, Kenya, CIEL |
Target Completion:
Q4 2024 |
Search ExperienceEnhance user’s experience with searching in OCL, both globally and within specific repositories, to find and assess relevant content |
|
| Goal: Implement advanced searching capabilities in OCL TermBrowser | Type: Capability |
| Description: OCL will enable users to leverage advanced API parameters and other powerful searching methods to narrow down search results to exactly what the user is searching for. This may include incorporation of a search syntax, development of a form for additional search parameters in the TermBrowser, and other methods. | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
All |
Target Completion:
Q2 2024 |
| Goal: Enhance OCL’s capabilities to display relevant information for concepts e.g. using mappings and comparisons | Type: Capability |
| Description: OCL will develop features and workflows that convey vital information to users to help understand terminology content of interest. This will include improved visualization of mappings on concepts, comparisons between resources, repositories, and different versions in OCL, and more. | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
OpenMRS, CIEL |
Target Completion:
Q2 2024 |
| Goal: Enhance OCL search to promote timely return of the most relevant and trusted content for users e.g. “Walled Garden” | Type: Capability |
| Description: OCL will incorporate features that enhance OCL’s search experience, such as the “Walled Garden”, search performance improvements, and search scoring and relevance. The aim is to maximize the chances of users finding the content they are searching for, assuming that it has been published on OCL Online. Search results should be returned in a timely manner. | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
OpenMRS |
Target Completion:
Q3 2024 |
Multi-server Browsing & ManagementEnable the TermBrowser to interact with terminology resources from multiple OCL and FHIR terminology servers (TS) simultaneously, including the WHO ICD-11 FHIR service. |
|
| Goal: Develop features for “Smart” Bulk Importing/Exporting and Content syndication | Type: Capability |
| Description: OCL will enhance its bulk import service with content synchronization features, which will streamline the process of routinely importing and maintaining content across multiple OCL deployments and environments. | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
WHO, HL7 |
Target Completion:
Q2 2024 |
| Goal: Enable seamless connection between OCL and an external FHIR terminology server | Type: TBD |
| Description: OCL’s TermBrowser will have the ability to connect to a FHIR-SVCM compatible terminology server for browsing and searching content outside of an OCL environment. OCL will be able to connect to and understand the FHIR terminology content and view it in an intuitive user interface, which relieves users from having to navigate FHIR terminology servers via API calls. | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
WHO |
Target Completion:
Q3 2024 |
| Goal: Enable referencing of external terminology server for value sets and concept maps | Type: Capability |
| Description: OCL will support the referencing of resources from an external terminology service, with a focus on making value sets and concept maps.This will enable users in a single OCL instance to gather and map to content from multiple terminology servers (such as ICD-11’s FHIR TS) without the need to switch to another OCL or other TS environment. | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
WHO |
Target Completion:
Q4 2024 |
Standards Reuse and CollaborationStreamline cooperation between terminology publishers and implementing community, and reuse standard content in your own work to facilitate interoperability. |
|
| Goal: Promote usage of standardized content in OCL for cleaner, consistent terminology use | Type: TBD |
| Description: OCL will support terminology content managers in massaging content into standard values, providing assistance with data transformation, content mapping, repository configuration, etc., so that content appears consistently in OCL Online. Users will be assisted with more information on using common standard values for their content where appropriate. | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
OpenMRS |
Target Completion:
Q2 2024 |
| Goal: Facilitate communication on terminology content between terminology publishers and implementers | Type: User Experience |
| Description: OCL will assist terminology implementers and consumers in discussing terminology content with its publisher. This will aim to supplement and/or replace existing methods where content users ask questions, request changes, etc. to terminology publishers. | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
OpenMRS, WHO, Kenya |
Target Completion:
Q4 2024 |
Cybersecurity & ComplianceComply with strict cybersecurity requirements of government/enterprise deployments, particularly for WHO to deploy OCL in their Azure and for PEPFAR to use OCL Online in production. |
|
| Goal: Make progress toward OWASP Top 10 Security Measures | Type: Capability |
| Description: Ensure that OCL Online and the upcoming WHO Azure deployment of OCL have controls in place for all High security risk OWASP 10 requirements (e.g. broken access control, cryptographic failures, injection, etc.). Draft documentation to support self-hosted deployments of OCL implement similar controls. | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
All |
Target Completion:
Q3 2024 |
| Goal: Implement advanced permissions framework | Type: Capability |
| Description: Enhance OCL’s existing permissions framework to support group/role-based permissions and to allow more granular access control, e.g. at the repository level. | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
All |
Target Completion:
Q4 2024 |
| Goal: Achieve WHO cybersecurity and accessibility compliance, including internationalization support in the TermBrowser | Type: Capability |
| Description: WHO must approve OCL’s compliance with cybersecurity and accessibility requirements (documented in the WHO’s Risk Classification tool) prior to production deployment. | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
WHO |
Target Completion:
Q3 2024 |
Community |
|
Community WebsiteEnhancing OCL’s primary website to support discovery and connection of users to the appropriate parts of the OCL tools and community |
|
| Goal: Launch the redesigned version 3 (v3) of OCL’s Community Website | Type: Capability |
| Description: OCL will launch a new website for the community to access necessary resources, understand elements to the tools and resources, and learn how to quickly get started, engage with the community, and ask for support. | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
All |
|
| Goal: Provide users with all key information for using OCL and participating in the community | Type: User Experience |
| Description: Users of the OCL service understand how/when/where to participate in the community, engage with peers in Terminology, and those looking to get started with their approach to terminology management can lean on the community for support in addition to information the website provides | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
All |
|
EventsCommunity-supported events to provide community members the opportunity to connect on works-in-progress and progress to be made in the tools and in terminology |
|
| Goal: Host community calls where all OCL-related questions, requests, discussion, etc. occur and to engage community and improve OCL’s tools and content | Type: Community |
| Description: The community will be the hose to calls for those in terminology management to learn more about the OCL tools and from other working in terminology management | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
OpenMRS, WHO, HL7 |
|
| Goal: Connect all OCL user topics to relevant communities, including those of OCL, OpenHIE, HL7, OpenMRS, WHO, etc. | Type: User Experience |
| Description: Promote the forums hosted by other communities to the OCL community, including how/why they can participate in those forums – Also to promote the OCL Chat forum to these spaces for OCL-specific conversations | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
OpenMRS, WHO, HL7, OpenHIE |
|
CommunicationsPromote the work of the community and tools and the opportunity for community members to further engage |
|
| Goal: Regularly promote updates regarding tools/tech to the community | Type: Community |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
All |
|
| Goal: Regularly promote the community to the Terminology management world | Type: Community |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
All |
|
GovernanceEfforts that the secretariat team pushes forward to advance and promote the work of the community |
|
| Goal: Publish documentation on governance structure and processes for OCL as a product and as a community | Type: Community |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
WHO, HL7, PEPFAR |
|
| Goal: Public documentation on governance structure and processes for OCL as a product and as a community | Type: Community |
| Description: | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
WHO, HL7, PEPFAR |
|
User SupportEstablish processes, tools and documentation to provide user support, report bugs, etc. |
|
| Goal: Establish clear help desk support and troubleshooting process for users | Type: Community |
| Description: Pathways for users to seek support for OCL tools are transparent in the relevant locations, including in OCL TermBrowser and on the website | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
All |
Target Completion:
Q3 |
| Goal: Create clear paths for open, transparent ticketing that users participate in and receive support in a timely manner | Type: User Experience |
| Description: OCL’s ticketing process will be easily accessible, organized, and transparent enough that users routinely report their own bugs and enhancement requests. These tickets will be reviewed and triaged in a timely manner to keep community members engaged with the ongoing work. | |
Success Measures:
|
|
| Key Partners and Supporters:
All |
Target Completion:
Q4 |