Medical waveform Format Encoding Rules

Medical waveforms such as electrocardiogram and electroencephalogram are widely utilized in physiological examination, healthcare information and other areas in the clinical field. Signal processing technology has extended the utilization of waveform data to various fields including research and investigation. However, there is no commonly used standard format for wafeform data, only proprietary standards. HL7 and DICOM formats enable description of medical waveforms but the scope of application is limited. IEEE 1073 provides some stipulations but it is specialized at the medical device level, and is not always easy to apply. To make physiological information easy to handle, medical waveform data should be described separately from other information and thus it is desirable to have a universal standard description format for medical waveforms. If such a standard format is popularly used, physiological information could be utilized more efficiently and the effective use of waveform data can be expected for healthcare information such as electronic health records and physiological research.

The Medical waveform description Format Encoding Rules(MFER) has the following aims

• Simple and easy installation

  MFER is aiming at utmost simplification; for example, MFER enables simple encoding of standard 12-lead ECG. Simplification facilitates understanding, installation, trouble shooting, and decreases implementation cost.

• Harmonization with other standards

  MFER is specialized in medical waveforms. For encoding information other than medical waveforms, it is recommended to use the HL7, DICOM or IEEE 1073 format, whichever has its forte for the specific non-waveform information. In principle, therefore, it is considered more effective to encode information such as patient information and examination information, excluding medical waveforms, using a format which has the strong point for such information rather than using MFER for both wavforms and patient information.

• Separation of application and provider

  With MFER, providers of medical waveforms concentrate on description of waveforms as accurately as possible using the entire rules. Application are not obliged to wholly install the specifications but might understand and utilize only the necessary information for each individual purpose. Depending on the system design, unnecessary tips in the information supplied by providers may be ignored or regarded as errors to suspend processing.

• Human interface specification

  Medical waveform information must be encoded in such a manner to enablie users to cope with diversified purposes and differences among patients. MFER not only encodes data in a definite form but also has a structure to enable transmission of important information with messages to users.

• It is expected that MFER will be used with the following basic policy.

  • MFER must not impede features of each individual system and must not prevent technological development.
  • MFER aims at
    • enabling easy conversion of past database of medical waveforms,
    • accurate encoding of present waveform information,
    • sufficient description of possible new medical waveforms in the future.
  • MFER does not exclude other rules.