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 champion or stakeholder for one of the goals. See this post on OCL Chat for more info on becoming a champion: Seeking champions for the 2023 OCL Community Roadmap!
- 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!
OCL Community Roadmap Framework
For 2023, we introduced a new framework for our roadmap to make it easier to understand and to track progress against. The new framework consists of these categories:
- Cross-cutting Goals & Community Initiatives – The goals from tools, services, and community come together to help the entire OCL community achieve greater impact
- Tools – OCL’s open source tools and related infrastructure
- Services – The set of centrally provided services, including OCL Online
- Community – All activities and resources to support the OCL community
2023 OCL Roadmap Summary
Tools
Category | Goal | Driving Use Case |
---|---|---|
Status: In progress
|
Launch the new OCL FHIR Corebeta and preload HL7 FHIR terminology content** in OCL Online. *OCL FHIR Core is based on the FHIR R4 specification **See “Definitions JSON” under Resource Collections at https://terminology.hl7.org/downloads.html |
Use OCL to author or adapt FHIR-based computable guidelines (i.e. SMART Guidelines, PEPFAR DASH) into your information architecture. |
Multi-server Browsing & Management
Status: Seeking
|
Enable the TermBrowser to interact with terminology resources from multiple OCL and FHIR terminology servers simultaneously, including the WHO ICD-11 FHIR service. | Support emerging federated models with multiple publication services (e.g. WHO ICD-11 FHIR service, SMART Guidelines, OCL Online). |
TermBrowser Design System
Status: In progress Seeking
|
Introduce a design system that provides design guidance to code contributors and implement it across OCL’s tools. | Create a more consistent and intuitive user experience across OCL’s online presence and lower barriers to community code contributions. |
Dynamic Collection Workflows
Status: Seeking
|
Implement workflows that leverage OCL’s new dynamic collection features in the TermBrowser, including advanced expansions, smarter versioning, repository comparisons, and more. | Make it easier to adapt terminologies to local requirements and to maintain content as best practices and standards evolve over time. |
Collaboration Workflows & Notifications
Status: Not started Seeking
|
Implement collaborative features, including concept proposals, translation suggestions, review and approval workflow, and automated change notifications, to facilitate community feedback, reuse of high quality terminology content, and peer learning. | Allow users to interface with terminology publishers to suggest changes to the content, or to open up content for feedback from terminology experts. |
OpenMRS Dictionary Management
Status: In progress Seeking
|
Implement remaining features that OpenMRS Dictionary Managers need to build and subscribe to concept dictionaries directly inside the OCL TermBrowser, such as sorted mappings, concept cloning, concept customizations, and linked sources. | Prepare OCL for production-level subscription and management of source-based OpenMRS concept dictionaries. |
Internationalization
Status: In progress Seeking
|
Add support for multiple user interface translations in the TermBrowser and expand multilingual support for managed terminologies (e.g. country codes, custom attributes). | Improve accessibility of the OCL Toolkit for users globally with better internationalization. |
Cybersecurity & Compliance
Status: Seeking
|
Rollout single-sign on, advanced permissions, and cybersecurity controls to support more deployment configurations and compliance with WHO/USG requirements. | OCL capable of complying 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. |
Services
Category | Goal | Driving Use Case |
---|---|---|
OCL Online
Status: In progress
|
Publish and maintain key reference terminologies, including HL7 FHIR Terminologies, PEPFAR MER indicators, CIEL, SNOMED GPS, and others. Continue to improve OCL Online infrastructure, including performance, analytics, and system administration. | Any LMIC implementer of OpenMRS, SMART Guidelines, etc. can collect and reuse pre-loaded standard, emerging, and custom terminology content from a one-stop shop for common emerging data exchange use cases. |
User Support
Status: Not started
|
Establish processes, tools and documentation to provide user support, report bugs, etc. | Any user of OCL can identify and participate in processes to report issues, ask for technical support, and stay up to date with fixes or enhancements. |
Client Technical Assistance
Status: In progress
|
Setup partnership-based technical assistance models to augment resources for OCL implementers. | OCL implementers can get the technical assistance that they need with terminology implementation and adoption. |
Community
Category | Goal | Impact |
---|---|---|
Community / User Engagement
Status: In progress Seeking
|
Create forums, tools, and online spaces for community events, community-led discussions and peer learning. | Foster a culture that promotes: 1) The ability for users to identify themselves as community members and co-owners of OCL; and 2) Easily accessible peer-learning for OCL features, strategies, and best practices. |
Communications
Status: In progress Seeking
|
Optimize the communication strategy to maintain regular communications and outreach by promoting the OCL identity, value, community voices, and growth. | OCL community is aware of new features, resources and impact stories and users feel invested in and contribute to the progress, tools, and contributions of OCL. |
Learning Materials
Status: Seeking
|
Coordinate the development and revision of materials to support the use, management, deployment, and development of the OCL Toolkit. | Users have the resources they need to effectively use OCL. |
Community Governance
Status: In progress
|
Create the first OCL Strategic Roadmap to guide organizational and business development and community governance. | OCL community has transparent governance with well-defined opportunities to influence the community’s evolution. |
2023 OCL Community Roadmap Details
Tools
OCL FHIR Corebeta
Goal | Launch the new OCL FHIR Corebeta and preload HL7 FHIR terminology content in OCL Online. * OCL FHIR Core is based on the FHIR R4 specification ** See “Definitions JSON” under Resource Collections at https://terminology.hl7.org/downloads.html |
Driving Use Case | Use OCL to author or adapt FHIR-based computable guidelines (i.e. SMART Guidelines, PEPFAR DASH) into your information architecture. |
Status | In progress |
Champion | Rafal |
Stakeholders | tbd |
Resources Needed | FHIR SME, Tester, FHIR Developer |
Description | Target Completion Date | Resourcing |
Beta launch for OCL FHIR Core beta (includes retiring old FHIR service) | 2023Q1 (Done) |
Funded |
Reproducible battery of tests to load and validate HL7 terminologies and WHO SMART Guideline content | 2023Q2 | Funding Expected |
FHIR Compatibility statement | 2023Q2 | Funding Expected |
Global Canonical URL Registry | 2023Q2 | Not Resourced |
Support for FHIR Implementation Guide builds (initial use case is to support builds off the WHO ANC FHIR Implementation Guide) | 2023Q3 | Funding Expected |
Official launch for OCL FHIR Core v1 | 2023Q3 | Partially Resourced |
FHIR/SVCM compliance testing | 2023Q3 | Partially Resourced |
Support implicit value sets | 2023Q3 | Not Resourced |
WHO SMART Guideline full publication support | 2023Q3 | Funding Expected |
HL7 Connectathon | 2023Q3 | Not Resourced |
Add support for FHIR resources & bundles to the OCL bulk importer | 2023Q4 | Partially Resourced |
Multi-server Browsing and Management
Goal | Enable the TermBrowser to interact with terminology resources from multiple OCL and FHIR terminology servers simultaneously, including the WHO ICD-11 FHIR service. |
Driving Use Case | Support emerging federated models with multiple publication services (e.g. WHO ICD-11 FHIR service, SMART Guidelines, OCL Online). |
Status | Seeking |
Champion | tbd |
Stakeholders | tbd |
Resources Needed | React developer |
Description | Target Completion Date | Resourcing |
TermBrowser Connectors | n/a | |
|
2023Q2 | Funding Expected |
|
2023Q2 | Funding Expected |
|
2023Q2 | Funding Expected |
|
2023Q2 | Funding Expected |
Importable repository exports | 2023Q4 | Funding Expected |
Multi-server capabilities |
n/a | |
|
2023Q3 | Partially Resourced |
|
2023Q4 | Partially Resourced |
|
2023Q4 | Not Resourced |
|
2023Q4 | Not Resourced |
“Smart” Bulk Import/Export and Content syndication | n/a | |
|
2023Q3 | Not Resourced |
|
2023Q4 | Partially Resourced |
|
2023Q4 | Partially Resourced |
TermBrowser Design System
Goal | Introduce a design system that provides design guidance to code contributors and implement it across OCL’s tools. |
Driving Use Case | Create a more consistent and intuitive user experience across OCL’s online presence and lower barriers to community code contributions. |
Status | In progress Seeking |
Champion | Paul Adams |
Stakeholders | Joe |
Resources Needed | UX expertise, UI testers, Search optimization expertise, FHIR SME |
Description | Target Completion Date | Resourcing |
Information architecture, templates, design system | 2023Q1 | Partially Resourced |
Concept and Mapping forms and details pages | 2023Q2 | Partially Resourced |
Search optimization | 2023Q2 | Not Resourced |
Update OCL visual identity (logo, icons, colors, fonts) | 2023Q3 | Partially Resourced |
Dynamic Collection Workflows
Goal | Implement workflows that leverage OCL’s new dynamic collection features in the TermBrowser, including advanced expansions, smarter versioning, repository comparisons, and more. |
Driving Use Case | Make it easier to adapt terminologies to local requirements and to maintain content as best practices and standards evolve over time. |
Status | Seeking |
Champion | tbd |
Stakeholders | tbd |
Resources Needed | OCL Collection Users, OpenMRS Dictionary managers, UI/UX testers |
Description | Target Completion Date | Resourcing |
Collection Management | n/a | |
|
2023Q2 | Partially Resourced |
|
2023Q2 | Not Resourced |
|
2023Q2 | Not Resourced |
|
2023Q3 | Partially Resourced |
|
2023Q2 | Not Resourced |
|
2023Q3 | Not Resourced |
|
2023Q4 | Funding Expected |
|
2023Q4 | Not Resourced |
Version management | n/a | |
|
2023Q2 | Not Resourced |
|
2023Q2 | Not Resourced |
Collaboration Workflows and Notifications
Goal | Implement collaborative features, including concept proposals, translation suggestions, review and approval workflow, and automated change notifications, to facilitate community feedback, reuse of high quality terminology content, and peer learning. |
Driving Use Case | Allow users to interface with terminology publishers to suggest changes to the content, or to open up content for feedback from terminology experts. |
Status | Not Started Seeking |
Champions | Andy, Joe |
Stakeholders | TBD |
Resources Needed | Terminology subscribers, Dictionary management teams, Terminology publishers |
Description | Target Completion Date | Resourcing |
User feedback/suggestions (e.g. new translation) and concept/mapping proposals | 2023Q2 | Partially Resourced |
“Walled garden”, promoting relevant user content | 2023Q2 | Partially Resourced |
“Deep linking” directly to resources/pages of interest | 2023Q2 | Not Resourced |
Automated notification of new releases or changed content | 2023Q3 | Not Resourced |
Audited authoring review and approval | 2023Q4 | Not Resourced |
OpenMRS Dictionary Management
Goal | Implement remaining features that OpenMRS Dictionary Managers need to build and subscribe to concept dictionaries directly inside the OCL TermBrowser, such as sorted mappings, concept cloning, concept customizations, and linked sources. |
Driving Use Case | Prepare OCL for production-level subscription and management of source-based OpenMRS concept dictionaries. |
Status | In progress Seeking |
Champion | Suruchi |
Stakeholders | tbd |
Resources Needed | CIEL implementers, Dictionary Managers |
Description | Target Completion Date | Resourcing |
Arrangement of Mappings in Sources | 2023Q1 (Done) | Funded |
Resource Cloning | 2023Q1 (Done) | Funded |
Source Summary tab for viewing key information, including mapped sources |
2023Q1 (Done) | Funded |
Sunset OpenMRS Dictionary Manager | 2023Q1 (Done) | Funded |
Collection Summary tab for viewing key information, including mapped sources | 2023Q2 | Partially Resourced |
Concept/Mapping Customization | 2023Q2 | Not Resourced |
Linked Sources i.e. Improved Source/Collection Interaction: | n/a | |
|
2021Q1 (Done) | Not Resourced |
|
2021Q1 (Done) | Not Resourced |
|
2023Q2 | Not Resourced |
OpenMRS Subscription Module Workflow (i.e. OCL Content Import into OpenMRS) | Not Resourced | |
Updates OpenMRS Validation Schema | Not Resourced | |
Concept Templates for OpenMRS Use Cases (e.g. numeric concepts with custom attributes for numeric ranges) | 2023Q4 | Not Resourced |
Internationalization
Goal | Add support for multiple user interface translations in the TermBrowser and expand multilingual support for managed terminologies (e.g. country codes, custom attributes). |
Driving Use Case | Improve accessibility of the OCL Toolkit for users globally with better internationalization. |
Status | In progress Seeking |
Champion | Sunny |
Stakeholders | tbd |
Resources Needed | Python/React developer, Translators |
Description | Target Completion Date | Resourcing |
Multilingual TermBrowser UI | 2023Q2 | Funding Expected |
Right-to-left language support in the UI (i.e. Arabic) | 2023Q2 | Funding Expected |
Locales round 2 (improved support for country codes) | 2023Q3 | Not Resourced |
Multilingual custom attributes | 2023Q4 | Not Resourced |
Cybersecurity and Compliance
Goal | Rollout single-sign on, advanced permissions, and cybersecurity controls to support more deployment configurations and compliance with WHO/USG requirements. |
Driving Use Case | OCL capable of complying 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. |
Status | Seeking |
Champion | tbd |
Stakeholders | tbd |
Resources Needed | Cybersecurity SME |
Description | Target Completion Date | Resourcing |
Single Sign On (SSO) | n/a | |
|
2023Q1 (Done) | Funded |
|
2023Q3 | Funding Expected |
Advanced role-based permissions | 2023Q2 | Partially Resourced |
Enhanced support for self-hosting (e.g. documentation, versioning, standard OCL images) | 2023Q2 | Not Resourced |
Implement cybersecurity controls | n/a | |
|
2023Q3 | Funded |
|
2023Q3 | Funding Expected |
Support for Azure deployment | 2023Q3 | Funding Expected |
Services
OCL Online
Goal | Publish and maintain key reference terminologies, including HL7 FHIR Terminologies, PEPFAR MER indicators, CIEL, SNOMED GPS, and others. Continue to improve OCL Online infrastructure, including performance, analytics, and system administration. |
Driving Use Case | Any LMIC implementer of OpenMRS, SMART Guidelines, etc. can collect and reuse pre-loaded standard, emerging, and custom terminology content from a one-stop shop for common emerging data exchange use cases. |
Status | In progress |
Champion | Jon |
Stakeholders | Global Connect, Regenstrief |
Resources Needed | Legal counsel (licensing), Terminology modeler, ETL expertise, Senior architect, Senior developer |
Description | Target Completion Date | Resourcing |
Reference terminology publication and maintenance: | ||
|
2023Q2 | Funding Expected |
|
2023Q3 | Not Resourced |
|
TBD | Not Resourced |
Content support for Emerging Standards: | n/a | |
|
2023Q2 | Funding Expected |
|
2023Q4 | Funding Expected |
|
2023Q3 | Funded |
|
Ongoing, monthly | Partially Resourced |
|
2023Q3 | Not Resourced |
|
TBD | TBD |
Performance improvements, e.g.:
|
2023Q4 | Not Resourced |
OCL Online Infrastructure:
|
Not Resourced | |
OCL Online Monitoring and Documentation:
|
Not Resourced |
User Support
Goal | Establish processes, tools and documentation to provide user support, report bugs, etc. |
Driving Use Case | Any user of OCL can identify and participate in processes to report issues, ask for technical support, and stay up to date with fixes or enhancements. |
Status | Not Started |
Champion | Joe |
Stakeholders | tbd |
Resources Needed | Help Desk Expertise, Project Management, and Governance Support |
Description | Target Completion Date | Resourcing |
Help Desk Processes and Documentation | 2023Q4 | Funding Expected |
Client Technical Assistance
Goal | Setup partnership-based technical assistance models to augment resources for OCL implementers. |
Driving Use Case | OCL implementers can get the technical assistance that they need with terminology implementation and adoption. |
Status | In progress |
Stakeholders | Global Connect, Regenstrief |
Resources Needed | Business analysis, Implementers of SMART guidelines content, Terminology implementation/governance SME |
Description | Target Completion Date | Resourcing |
World Health Organization (WHO): | n/a | |
|
2023Q4 | Funding Expected |
|
2023Q3 | Funding Expected |
U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR): | n/a | |
|
2023Q2 | Funded |
|
2023Q2 | Funded |
|
2023Q2 | Funded |
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Technical Assistance Platform (TAP): | n/a | |
|
2023Q2 | Funding Expected |
|
Ongoing | Funding Expected |
Community
Community / User Engagement
Goal | Create forums, tools, and online spaces for community events, community-led discussions and peer learning. |
Impact | Foster a culture that promotes: 1) The ability for users to identify themselves as community members and co-owners of OCL; and 2) Easily accessible peer-learning for OCL features, strategies, and best practices. |
Status | In progress Seeking |
Champion | Kasey |
Stakeholders | tbd |
Resources Needed | Content writers, Business analyst |
Description | Target Completion Date | Resourcing |
OCL Community Initiatives | n/a | |
|
2023Q1 | Partially Resourced |
|
2023Q2 | Funded |
Launch OCL Implementer badges in collaboration with the OpenMRS Community | 2023Q1 | Not Resourced |
Implement OCL Community Discussion Forum (i.e. discourse?) to discuss feature requests and other community needs | 2023Q1 (Done) | Not Resourced |
OCL User personas & profiles | 2023Q2 | Partially Resourced |
OCL Team workshops: Host at least 4 team workshops during 2023 | 2023Q2 | Partially Resourced |
Community Outreach and Support | 2023Q2 | Partially Resourced |
Introduce release cycles | 2023Q2 | Not Resourced |
Establish and document a clear feature prioritization process and how to participate | 2023Q3 | Not Resourced |
Communications
Goal | Optimize the communication strategy to maintain regular communications and outreach by promoting the OCL identity, value, community voices, and growth. |
Impact | OCL community is aware of new features, resources and impact stories and users feel invested in and contribute to the progress, tools, and contributions of OCL. |
Status | In progress Seeking |
Champion | Kasey |
Stakeholders | Regenstrief |
Resources Needed | Content writers (e.g. blog posts, newsletter) |
Description | Target Completion Date | Resourcing |
Communications schedule for 2023 (e.g. monthly email, at least 1 blog post per month, more guest blog posts, etc.) | 2023Q1 | Partially Resourced |
Plan (priorities, approach, cadence) for minor communications e.g. feature updates, strategic updates, calls to participate/champion, community highlights, etc. | 2023Q2 | Partially Resourced |
Engaging community to help develop/maintain learning materials, blogs, etc | 2023Q2 | Not Resourced |
Learning Materials
Goal | Coordinate the development and revision of materials to support the use, management, deployment, and development of the OCL Toolkit. |
Impact | Users have the resources they need to effectively use OCL. |
Status | Seeking |
Champion | Joe |
Stakeholders | tbd |
Resources Needed | tbd |
Description | Target Completion Date | Resourcing |
Refine Terminology Maturity Model Assessment tool with community input | 2023Q3 | Funded |
Expand OCL technical documentation | Not Resourced | |
Revise OCL FAQ | Not Resourced | |
Create Youtube educational videos | Ongoing | Not Resourced |
Learning materials assessment: |
n/a | |
|
2023Q3 | Funded |
|
2023Q4 | Partially Resourced |
Community Governance
Goal | Create the first OCL Strategic Roadmap to guide organizational and business development and community governance. |
Impact | OCL community has transparent governance with well-defined opportunities to influence the community’s evolution. |
Status | In progress |
Champion | Jon |
Stakeholders | Global Connect, Regenstrief |
Resources Needed | TBD |
Description | Target Completion Date | Resourcing |
OCL Governance plan | 2023Q1 (Done) |
Funded |
Adopt OCL Community Governance Strategy | 2023Q2 | Funded |
OCL community governance strengthening | 2023Q4 | Funded |
OCL Strategic Roadmap to guide organizational and business development and community governance | 2023Q4 | Partially Resourced |
Parking Lot
Items that haven’t yet been incorporated into the roadmap are listed below. None of these are currently funded and priorities are TBD. Community members are welcome to suggest changes/additions to this list so that others can chime in. You can always email info@openconceptlab.org if you are unsure of how to contribute to this list.
- Fuzzy matching
- Lookup tables pulled from sources in OCL
- Squash duplicate resource versions using checksums
- Possible additions to OpenMRS Dictionary Management (from Migrating PIH to OCL):
- Editing concept numerics (managing ranges and units)
- Datatype-specific behavior – e.g., adding answers (and not set members) to questions, adding set members (and not answers) to sets
- Changing external ID (OpenMRS UUID) when breaking changes made to cloned concept (e.g., datatype changed on concept copied from CIEL)
- Including sources in export
- Better handling of long running tasks in UI