System Interoperability and Management – SIM

Technological Activity

The group carries out technological development and applied research activities aimed at the design and implementation of innovative technological platforms and application services, designed to make different IT systems interoperable with each other in an integrated and secure manner. By appropriately combining approaches of Data Interoperability, Machine Learning and Information Security, the group provides solutions capable of facilitating the discovery, interoperability, accessibility and reuse of data present in distributed information systems, in accordance with FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable).

The main activities performed by the group are the following:

  • Design, implementation and verification of architectural models and middleware infrastructures to support interoperability between heterogeneous information systems through Web Services and information management technologies.
  • Definition of information models for the homogeneous representation of concepts in support of the information retrieval.
  • Modelling of business processes for the development of enabling technological systems.
  • Definition and application of techniques for security and privacy, with particular interest in the protection of data and programs through cryptographic and access control mechanisms.
  • Application and implementation of techniques for the extraction, analysis and classification of information of interest present in large amounts of heterogeneous data, both structured and unstructured, to support decisions.
  • Identification of decentralized architectural approaches for the tracking and certification of events using blockchain technologies and the use of smart contracts.
  • Analysis and understanding of supply systems in terms of innovative products and services (state of the art, benchmarking, national and international projects in progress, purposes).
  • Contribution to the issue of standards and technical regulations in the healthcare IT sector through participation in working groups made up of competent bodies (such as HL7 Italy and UNINFO Commission for Medical Informatics).
    Management and maintenance of information systems and ICT services for the Institute.

 

These activities are carried out through the application of methodological approaches based on Domain Requirements Engineering, Functional Model Definition, Business Process Modeling, Service and Resource-Oriented Architecture, Data Analysis, Authentication, Authorization and Auditing, Resource and Service Virtualization, Software Development and Testing, Verification and Validation.
Particular attention is paid to the definition of models for the interoperability and security of health information systems, such as the Electronic Health Record, through cooperation with the competent Institutions.

 

Goals

The group’s objectives are the definition, development and validation of innovative technological solutions capable of fostering interoperability between heterogeneous software applications and platforms, in order to facilitate the collection, interchange and understanding of data of different nature, respecting security and privacy requirements.

Interoperability represents a major challenge for modern IT systems, as they are complex, distributed, designed to meet different regulations, based on diverse communication formats and protocols, including third-party components, continuously evolving.
These issues are addressed by identifying architectural approaches based on standards, aimed at supporting domain processes through the use of homogeneous data representations, secure exchange methods, shared interfaces, techniques for intelligent information extraction, access control and event tracing.

 

Application Fields

Digital Health, Smart Factory, Cultural Heritage.

 

Collaborations

The group collaborates with numerous Public Administrations, Universities, Public Research Bodies, healthcare organisations, small, medium and large companies at national and European level to carry out activities aimed at promoting digital innovation in significant application areas, such as digital health, urban intelligence, social sciences. These collaborations are substantiated through joint participation in research projects, the stipulation of collaboration agreements, and the creation of working groups. Particular mention is made for the European Commission, Agency for Digital Italy, Department for Digital Transformation (DTD) of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy, Regions, Sogei, University of Brighton, University of Essex, University of Naples “Federico II”, University of Naples “Parthenope”, University of Salerno, University of Macerata, University of Calabria, DIITET, IASI, IBB, IEIIT, IFAC, IFT, IIT, IMATI, INM, IrCRES, IRPPS, ISTC, ISTI and URS of the CNR, Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH), Istituto Nazionale Tumori IRCCS G. Pascale, Pineta Grande, Synlab SDN, Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS), eHealthNet scarl, Projecto e Desenvolvimento Manutenção Formação e Consultadoria (PDMFC), Privanova, Sphynx Technology Solutions, TUV Trust IT, Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, Gesan, CID Software Studio, Kelyon, Sync Lab, SA Documents.

 

Research products

The group’s research products concern scientific papers, research and/or project technical reports, software artifacts, purchase and configuration of instrumental resources.
The scientific papers are published in international and national journals and conference proceedings and indexed by the main abstract and citation databases. The institutional technical reports are published in the CNR-ICAR series, available at the link https://intranet.icar.cnr.it/rapportitecnici/sede-napoli/. The project technical reports are provided as deliverables to the financing bodies, respecting the related scientific reporting rules.
Among the numerous products of the product search, the following are particularly highlighted:

  • MITO – DICOM Viewer: Windows-based open source software system for advanced processing and visualization of digital medical images. Its main features are compliance with the DICOM standard, 2D/3D/S3D visualization, image segmentation and fusion, ROI selection, advanced 3D user interface. Link: https://sourceforge.net/projects/mito/.
  • OpenInFSE Components: Software components developed in accordance with the specifications of the experimental technological infrastructure for interregional interoperability of the Electronic Health Record approved by the Electronic Health Table of the Regions and Autonomous Provinces and made available to all interested parties. Link: https://infse.na.icar.cnr.it/index.php/componenti-openinfse/category/10-componenti-openinfse.
  • Technical specifications for interoperability between regional Electronic Health Record systems: technical rules referred to in Prime Ministerial Decree 178/2015 to guarantee the exchange of digital health data and documents between regional and European health information systems, in compliance with international standards of health IT (like IHE XDS and HL7 CDA) and regulations on privacy and IT security. In collaboration with the competent institutions. Link: https://www.fascicolosanitario.gov.it/linee-guida-manuali-documenti-tecnici.
  • Medical Informatics – Architectural models for the development of integrated software applications for healthcare: coordination of the working group, published by the Italian National Unification Body (UNI), Standard number UNI/TR 11794:2020, 30 July 2020. Link: https://store.uni.com/catalogo/uni-tr-11794-2020.
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