A Metadata Registry to Facilitate the Search and Retrieval of Electrocardiograms

Sequential electrocardiograms (ECGs) are very useful for personalized diagnosis. It is therefore very useful to search various electrocardiographs or ECG management systems connected to the Internet for a particular patient´s ECGs. This is an interesting but not completely solved problem. In this paper, we present an experimental study of our metadata registry aimed at facilitating the search for and retrieval of a patient´s ECGs via the Internet. The metadata registry was developed based on the ebXML registry methodology and Web service technique. An assessment test in an experimental scenario shows that it is feasible to apply the metadata registry to discovering and retrieving a patient´s ECGs resident in a number of emulated electrocardiographs placed in the Internet. This study demonstrates a useful framework for ECG sharing through the Internet.