Archetype Object Model 1.4 (AOM1.4)

Acknowledgements

Primary Author

  • Thomas Beale, Ars Semantica, UK

Supporters

The work reported in this paper has been funded by the following organisations:

  • UCL (University College London) - Centre for Health Informatics and Multiprofessional Education (CHIME);

  • Ocean Informatics.

Special thanks to Prof David Ingram, founding Director of CHIME, UCL, who provided a vision and collegial working environment ever since the days of GEHR (1992).

Trademarks

  • 'openEHR' is a trademark of the openEHR Foundation

  • 'Java' is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation

  • 'Microsoft' is a trademark of the Microsoft Corporation

Preface

Purpose

This document contains the definitive statement of archetype semantics, in the form of an object model for archetypes. The model presented here can be used as a basis for building software that processes archetypes, independent of their persistent representation; equally, it can be used to develop the output side of parsers that process archetypes in a linguistic format, such as the openEHR Archetype Definition Language (ADL), XML-instance and so on. As a specification, it can be treated as an API for archetypes.

It is recommended that the openEHR ADL document be read in conjunction with this document, since it contains a detailed explanation of the semantics of archetypes, and many of the examples are more obvious in ADL, regardless of whether ADL is actually used with the object model presented here or not.

Related Documents

Prerequisite documents for reading this document include:

Related documents include:

Nomenclature

In this document, the term 'attribute' denotes any stored property of a type defined in an object model, including primitive attributes and any kind of relationship such as an association or aggregation. XML 'attributes' are always referred to explicitly as 'XML attributes'.

Status

This specification is in the STABLE state. The development version of this document can be found at https://specifications.openehr.org/releases/AM/development/AOM1.4.html.

Known omissions or questions are indicated in the text with a 'to be determined' paragraph, as follows:

TBD: (example To Be Determined paragraph)

this specification is a re-formatted issue of the original AOM 1.4 Specification from openEHR Release 1.0.2. There are slight changes in formatting, citations and other references, corrections to typographical errors and changed syntax colourisation due to the use of more modern language-based syntax colourisers in the publishing tools.
for users requiring the most recent form of ADL and archetype technology in general, the Archetype Definition Language 2 (ADL2) specifications should be used. In particular, the Archetype Technology Overview should be referred to for the most current state of Archetype Technology.

Feedback

Feedback may be provided on the openEHR ADL forum.

Issues may be raised on the specifications Problem Report tracker.

To see changes made due to previously reported issues, see the AM component Change Request tracker.

Conformance

Conformance of a data or software artifact to an openEHR specification is determined by a formal test of that artifact against the relevant openEHR Implementation Technology Specification(s) (ITSs), such as an IDL interface or an XML-schema. Since ITSs are formal derivations from underlying models, ITS conformance indicates model conformance.

Background

What is an Archetype?

Archetypes are constraint-based models of domain entities, or what some might call "structured business rules". Each archetype describes configurations of data instances whose classes are described in a reference model; the instance configurations are considered to be valid exemplars of a particular domain concept. Thus, in medicine, an archetype might be designed to constrain configurations of instances of a simple node/arc information model, that express a "microbiology test result" or a "physical examination". Archetypes can be composed, specialised, and templated for local use. The archetype concept has been described in detail by [1], [2]. Most of the detailed formal semantics are described in the openEHR Archetype Definition Language. The openEHR archetype framework is described in the openEHR Archetypes Technical Overview.

Context

The object model described in this document relates to linguistic forms of archetypes as shown in the figure below. The model (upper right in the figure) is the object-oriented semantic equivalent of the ADL the Archetype Definition Language BNF language definition, and, by extension, any formal transformation of it. Instances of the model (lower right on the figure) are themselves archetypes, and correspond one-to-one with archetype documents expressed in ADL or a related language.

syntax model relationship
Figure 1. Relationship of Archetype Object Model to Archetype Languages

Tools

Various tools exist for creating and processing archetypes. The ADL Workbench is a reference compiler, visualiser and editor. The openEHR tools can be downloaded from the website . Source projects can be found at the openEHR Github project.

Changes from Previous Versions

Version 0.6 to 2.0

As part of the changes carried out to ADL version 1.3, the archetype object model specified here is revised, also to version 2.0, to indicate that ADL and the AOM can be regarded as 100% synchronised specifications.

  • added a new attribute adl_version : String to the ARCHETYPE class;

  • changed name of ARCHETYPE.concept_code attribute to concept.

Amendment Record

Issue Details Raiser, Implementer Completed

AM Release 2.4.0

1.4.6

SPECPR-378. Fix typos in AOM 1.4.

P Pazos

07 Mar 2025

AM Release 2.3.0

1.4.6

SPECAM-84. Fix typos in AOM, ADL 1.4.

R Kavanagh

03 Apr 2023

SPECAM-82. Upgrade AOM1.4 model to use BASE, and to have regular package structure. Correct a UML error to move the invariant on C_MULTIPLE_ATTRIBUTE to C_SINGLE_ATTRIBUTE.

T Beale

14 Feb 2023

1.4.5

SPECAM-69. Support negative durations. See [_c_duration_class]. (see also SPECRM-96).

P Bos,
S Garde

09 Sep 2020

1.4.4

SPECPUB-7. Convert citations to bibtex form.

T Beale

15 Dec 2019

AM Release 2.1.0

1.4.3

SPECAM-42Adjust references to BASE packages foundation_types, base_types and resource types.

T Beale

22 Sep 2017

AM Release 2.0.6

1.4.2

Add Appendix C, containing UML diagrams for RM dependencies.

D Boscá

18 May 2016

SPECBASE-4. Change order of type parameters in Hash<V,K> type to Hash<K,V>.

D Boscá

13 Apr 2016

Release 1.0.2

1.0.2

SPEC-257. Correct minor typos and clarify text. Correct reversed definitions of is_bag and is_set in CARDINALITY class.

C Ma,
R Chen,
T Cook

20 Nov 2008

SPEC-251. Allow both pattern and interval constraint on Duration in Archetypes. Add pattern attribute to C_DURATION class.

S Heard

Release 1.0.1

1.0.1

SPEC-200. Correct Release 1.0 typographical errors. Table for missed class ASSERTION_VARIABLE added. Assumed_value assertions corrected; standard_representation function corrected. Added missed adl_version , concept rename from SPEC-153.

D Lloyd,
P Pazos,
R Chen,
C Ma

20 Mar 2007

SPEC-216: Allow mixture of W, D etc in ISO8601 Duration (deviation from standard).

S Heard

SPEC-219: Use constants instead of literals to refer to terminology in RM.

R Chen

SPEC-232. Relax validity invariant on CONSTRAINT_REF .

R Chen

SPEC-233: Define semantics for occurrences on ARCHETYPE_INTERNAL_REF .

K Atalag

SPEC-234: Correct functional semantics of AOM constraint model package.

T Beale

SPEC-245: Allow term bindings to paths in archetypes.

S Heard

Release 1.0

1.0

SPEC-153. Synchronise ADL and AOM attribute naming. SPEC-178. Add Template Object Model to AM. Text changes only. SPEC-167. Add AUTHORED_RESOURCE class. Remove description package to resource package in Common IM.

T Beale

10 Nov 2005

Release 0.96

0.6

SPEC-134. Correct numerous documentation errors in AOM. Including cut and paste error in TRANSLATION_DETAILS class in Archetype package. Corrected hyperlinks in Section 2.3.

D Lloyd

20 Jun 2005

SPEC-142. Update ADL grammar to support assumed values. Changed C_PRIMITIVE and C_DOMAIN_TYPE .

S Heard,
T Beale

SPEC-146: Alterations to am.archetype.description from CEN MetaKnow

D Kalra

SPEC-138. Archetype-level assertions.

T Beale

SPEC-157. Fix names of OPERATOR_KIND class attributes

T Beale

Release 0.95

0.5.1

Corrected documentation error - return type of ARCHETYPE_CONSTRAINT . has_path
add optionality markers to Primitive types UML diagram.
Removed erroneous aggregation marker from ARCHETYPE_ONTOLOGY . parent_archetype and ARCHETYPE_DESCRIPTION . parent_archetype .

D Lloyd

20 Jan 2005

0.5

SPEC-110. Update ADL document and create AOM document.
Includes detailed input and review from:

  • DSTC, Australia

  • CHIME, University College London

  • Ocean Informatics

Initial Writing. Taken from ADL document 1.2draft B.

T Beale
A Goodchild
Z Tun
T Austin
D Kalra
N Lea
D Lloyd
S Heard
T Beale

10 Nov 2004

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