openEHR Conformance Verification
ToolsThe Problem
"Supports openEHR" is a claim, not a guarantee. Different CDR implementations support different subsets of the specification. Some implement EHR and Composition but not Contribution. Others implement the API endpoints but with subtle deviations in behavior that only surface under specific conditions. Without a systematic way to verify conformance, you cannot know what you actually have.
Manual conformance assessment is slow, inconsistent, and hard to repeat. When evaluating multiple CDR implementations or tracking whether a vendor has addressed a gap, you need results that are comparable across systems and reproducible over time. Running conformance tests by hand does not scale.
Why We Built It
During client engagements evaluating different openEHR CDRs, CaboLabs repeatedly faced the same question: "Does this system actually implement what the specification says?" Answering it required running dozens of test cases manually — creating EHRs, uploading templates, storing compositions, executing AQL queries, checking responses. The process took days and the results were hard to document clearly.
We built the Conformance Verification Framework to automate that process. The framework runs a structured test suite against any openEHR ITS REST-compliant endpoint and produces results that show, for each capability, whether the implementation is supported, partially supported, or missing. The same test suite can be run against multiple CDRs, producing results that are directly comparable.
The framework was later used in academic research on openEHR implementation quality, which required exactly this kind of structured, reproducible conformance data. It remains a practical tool for anyone evaluating CDR vendors or monitoring implementation progress during development.
Key Capabilities
What the framework does and what the results tell you.
Automated test suite
Runs a defined set of test cases derived from the openEHR ITS REST specification. Each test is mapped to a specific capability or behavior in the spec.
Structured, comparable results
Results are structured so that each capability has a clear status: supported, partial, or missing. The same format applies across all CDRs tested, making comparison straightforward.
Multi-CDR comparison
Run the same test suite against EHRServer, Atomik, EHRBase, or any other CDR and compare results directly. Useful for vendor evaluation or research purposes.
Full API surface coverage
Covers the EHR, Composition, Template, Contribution, and Query APIs. Tests include both happy-path cases and edge cases where implementations commonly diverge.
Progress monitoring
Run the framework repeatedly during CDR development to track which capabilities are complete and which gaps remain. Useful as an acceptance test gate for implementation milestones.
Do you have any questions?
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