As we look ahead to 2025, the Open Concept Lab (OCL) team is excited to share the results of our recent community survey! This survey was distributed in early October 2024, and we were ecstatic to receive such valuable feedback from our diverse user base. Survey participants spanned multiple countries and organizations, with the intent to help shape our roadmap and ensure OCL continues to meet the evolving needs of the global health informatics community.

 

OCL’s Global Reach

 

The survey responses highlight the global impact of OCL, with users serving countries including Ethiopia, Nigeria, Zambia, Brazil, Kenya, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, and more. Organizations such as OpenMRS, Regenstrief, CIEL, MSF/Madiro, and various Ministries of Health are also leveraging OCL to support their critical work in healthcare and health informatics.

 

What Users Love About OCL

 

1. Support for Key Terminology Content: Users appreciate the wide range of terminology content available in OCL. The most frequently accessed terminologies, along with the percentage of respondents who report using it, include:

• • ICD-10 (73.3% of respondents)
  • CIEL (66.7%)
  • LOINC (60%)
  • SNOMED GPS (46.7%)
  • Other terminology content (20.0%)

 

2. Reliability: A majority of users (73.4%) report finding the content they’re searching for either “Almost Always” or “Very Often,” which indicates satisfaction with OCL’s current coverage of terminology content.

 

 

 

 

 

3. Regular Usage: Over 60% of respondents use OCL Online at least monthly, with about one-third using it daily or weekly, demonstrating its importance as part of their work.

 

 

 

 

 

4. FHIR Support: Half of survey participants reported that accessing content in FHIR formats is important to them, with an additional ~35% indicating that they sometimes access OCL’s terminology content in a FHIR format. This implies that a majority of OCL’s users are thinking about FHIR in their work, either frequently or occasionally.

 

Opportunities for Improvement

 

Although the survey shows strong satisfaction, it also reveals areas where OCL could better support the community:

1. Additional Content: Users expressed interest in having more reference terminologies available, including:

• • ICD-11 (86.7% of respondents)
  • HL7 FHIR curated terminology (66.7%)
  • RxNorm (53.3%)
  • SNOMED CT (46.7%)

2. Additional OCL capabilities: Users expressed interest in improvements to OCL’s feature set, including:

• • Better OpenMRS support:
    • Improve dictionary management and concept customization
    • Integration with OpenMRS form builder
  • Enhanced FHIR capabilities: Strengthen support for accessing and downloading terminology content in FHIR format
  • Advanced matching and mapping: Develop fuzzy matching capabilities and tools for automatic and implicit mapping of concept dictionaries
  • Improved search functionality: Allow searching attributes and optimize overall search experience

3. Additions to CIEL content: Users mentioned that they like to see the following changes added to CIEL:

• • Expand mappings, particularly to ICD-11 and SNOMED CORE Problem List Subset
  • Add drug table support
  • Include more translations and synonyms
  • Create additional mappings to LOINC

4. Better ways to interact with CIEL: Users would like smoother pathways and processes for engaging with CIEL’s content and curators:

• • Implement a dedicated system for submitting terminology requests, and facilitate community contributions, such as suggesting translations
  • Improve documentation and provide more explicit guidelines
  • Sharing updates and future plans more regularly

5. Enhanced community engagement: Users are volunteering to contribute back to the OCL community, including the following modes:

• • Presenting at a Quarterly Showcase (71.4% of respondents)
  • Participating in an OCL users group (85.7%)
  • Serving as an OCL fellow or supporting a fellow (71.4%)

 

These identified areas for improvement will help guide our efforts in 2025 to enhance OCL’s functionality, expand its content, and better serve the needs of our user community.

 

Looking Ahead: OCL’s 2025 Roadmap

 

Based on community feedback, here are key areas we should consider for our 2025 product roadmap:

1. ICD-11 and FHIR Content Support: These were the most requested new content, and OCL should lay out a clear pathway for bringing this terminology content into OCL in meaningful ways.
2. Enhanced OpenMRS Support: Improving dictionary management and concept customization for OpenMRS use cases.
3. FHIR Capabilities: Expanding our FHIR support to meet the growing need for interoperability.
4. Improved Search and Matching: Optimizing search functionality and supporting automated mapping capabilities to improve identification of relevant content and linkage to existing concept dictionaries.
5. Community Engagement: Bringing new users into the fold using OCL initiatives, including Quarterly showcases, an OCL users group, and the OCL fellowship program.

 

Get Involved

 

As we develop our 2025 Community Roadmap in the coming months, we’ll be exploring new ways for you to connect with fellow OCL users, showcase your work, and dive deep into OCL enhancements. For now, check out OCL Chat for calls to action regarding our roadmap and other upcoming initiatives! And if you missed the chance to participate in this survey, make a post on OCL Chat to share your insights and feedback!

Your input is invaluable as we continue to evolve OCL. Whether you’re using OCL for national health data dictionaries, mapping local concepts, or integrating with other health information systems, we’re committed to supporting your work and advancing global health informatics together.

Stay tuned for more updates and calls for participation for developing the 2025 Community Roadmap, and thank you for being part of the OCL community!