Pan-Canadian HALO Specification
HALO is a standardized technology framework that enables approved jurisdictional and vendor applications to seamlessly integrate into any authorized Point of Care system.
Below is a summary of the descriptions for each use case.
| Use Case | Description |
|---|---|
| UC-01: Care Provider views and selects SMART Apps that are of interest | A Care Provider wants to view available digital health services (e.g., clinical decision support tools or jurisdictional assets) integrated through SMART Apps within the Point of Care Solution and select the ones that may enhance their clinical workflow. |
| UC-02: Care Provider Accesses Additional Patient Data via SMART App | A Care Provider wants to easily view data not available within their Point of Care Solution for a given patient (e.g., data from the jurisdictional Electronic Health Record (EHR), including lab tests, summaries, and medications). |
| UC-03: Care Provider Shares Patient Data with a SMART App | A Care Provider wants to launch SMART apps from within their Point of Care Solution to access and share relevant patient information with digital health services, such as creating eReferrals, eConsults, or electronic orders, depending on jurisdictional assets. |
| UC-04: Care Provider Receives External Information via SMART App | A Care Provider would like to receive information from external applications, including SMART Apps and jurisdictional assets, back within their Point of Care Solution. |
| UC-05: Backend Service Discovery and Onboarding | A Point of Care Solution wants to discover and initiate onboarding for backend services offered by a target system. |
| UC-06: Backend Service Retrieves Patient Data from Point of Care Solution | A backend service wants to access patient data from a Point of Care Solution to support a clinical workflow outside of an interactive user session. |
| UC-07: Backend Service Writes Patient Data to Point of Care Solution | A backend service wants to write patient data to a Point of Care Solution to support a clinical workflow outside of an interactive user session. |
A care provider wants to view available applications (e.g., clinical decision support tools, jurisdictional assets, digital health services) integrated through SMART Apps within the Point of Care Solution and select the ones that may enhance their clinical workflow.
Dr. Jones, a family physician, recently discovered that third-party SMART Apps have been integrated into the Point of Care Solution they regularly use at their clinic. Curious about the new capabilities, Dr. Jones logs into the Point of Care Solution to explore the available SMART Apps. After reviewing the list, Dr Jones identifies a few apps that may enhance their workflow.
| People | Systems |
|---|---|
| Care Provider: A clinician responsible for delivering care who interacts with SMART Apps to manage clinical tasks like consultations or data review. | Point of Care Solution (PoC): The clinical application used by the care provider to access and manage SMART Apps. |
| App Catalog: A RESTful API that provides necessary information about approved SMART Apps available within a jurisdiction for integration with the PoC Solution. |
A care provider wants to easily view data not available within their Point of Care Solution for a given patient (e.g., data from the jurisdictional Electronic Health Record (EHR), including lab tests, patient summaries, immunization records, and medication history, depending on available assets within the jurisdiction) directly from within their PoC Solution.
Dr. Smith, a family physician, is reviewing a patient's recent visit notes in her PoC Solution. She needs to check the latest lab results and immunization records, which are not available within her PoC Solution. Instead of logging into a separate system, Dr. Smith launches the Clinical Data Viewer SMART App directly from her PoC Solution. The SMART App provides seamless access to the patient's data from the jurisdictional EHR. Dr. Smith reviews the lab results, immunization records, and updates her patient notes accordingly.
| People | Systems |
|---|---|
| Care Provider: The family physician who needs to access additional patient data. | Point of Care Solution: The clinical application used by the care provider to access and manage patient information. |
| SMART App: The Clinical Data Viewer app that provides access to additional patient data. | |
| App Launcher: The interface within the PoC Solution that allows the care provider to select and launch SMART Apps. | |
| Jurisdictional EHR System: The system that stores additional patient data. |
The care provider initiates this use case when they need to access additional patient data not available in their PoC Solution by launching the appropriate SMART App from the App Launcher within the PoC Solution.
A care provider wants to launch SMART apps from within their Point of Care Solution to access and integrate digital health services, such as creating eReferrals, eConsults, electronic orders, or electronic forms. The specific services depend on what is available in their jurisdiction. In this use case, the care provider needs to share essential patient information for a particular clinical task using existing data standards, like the Pan-Canadian Patient Summary or the eReferral/eConsult standard, where applicable.
Dr. Lee, a family physician, is seeing a patient who has noticed a suspicious mole on their skin that has changed in size and color. Concerned about the potential for melanoma, Dr. Lee decides to seek the opinion of a dermatologist using the eConsult SMART App. Dr. Lee launches the eConsult SMART App from the App Launcher within the PoC Solution. The PoC Solution generates an eConsult-specific set of data for the patient in context, to be supplied to the SMART App. Dr. Lee reviews the eConsult request form with all of the necessary data pre-populated within the eConsult SMART App. After completing the consultation, Dr. Lee validates and submits the eConsult.
This scenario demonstrates a typical use case where a care provider launches an app (e.g., eConsult) from their Point of Care Solution, shares critical patient information, and completes a clinical task. It highlights the flexibility of the framework, supporting various digital health services, all following similar flows.
| People | Systems |
|---|---|
| Care Provider: The family physician initiating the eConsult and sharing patient details with the specialist. | Point of Care Solution: The clinical application used by the care provider to access and manage SMART Apps. |
| App Catalog: A RESTful API that provides necessary information about approved SMART Apps available within a jurisdiction for integration with the PoC Solution. | |
| SMART App: The eConsult app facilitating secure communication. | |
| Jurisdictional IDP: Authenticates the care provider’s identity. | |
| App Launcher: The interface within the PoC Solution for selecting SMART Apps. |
The care provider initiates this use case when they need to share patient information or complete a clinical task using a digital health service by launching the appropriate SMART App from the App Launcher within the PoC Solution.
A care provider would like to see updated clinical patient information in the PoC solution after clinical data is updated in the SMART App that is integrated with the PoC. The Care Provider has the ability to view the updated clinical data (e.g., view or save selected information into the Patient Chart) in the PoC.
Dr. Patel, a family physician works within their Point of Care Solution which received new lab results for a patient that have been delivered via a SMART App. After reviewing the results, Dr. Patel decides to save the key findings into the patient’s chart.
| People | Systems |
|---|---|
| Care Provider: The physician who is interacting with the PoC and receives access to new patient information. | Point of Care Solution (PoC): The clinical application used by the care provider to access and manage patient information. |
| SMART App: An app integrated with the PoC through SMART on FHIR that provides externally sourced clinical data (e.g., clinical viewer). |
The SMART App has new or updated clinical data that needs to be stored in the PoC system.
Dr. Patel, a family physician works within their Point of Care Solution which received an event notification indicating that new lab results for a patient have been written by a SMART App within the SMART on FHIR accelerator FHIR server. Based on the notification, the PoC saves the lab result information within the PoC system.
| People | Systems |
|---|---|
| Care Provider: The physician who is interacting with the PoC and receives access to new patient information. | Point of Care Solution (PoC): The clinical application used by the care provider to access and manage patient information. |
| SoFA: HALO SMART on FHIR Accelerator. | |
| SMART App: An app integrated with the PoC through SMART on FHIR that provides externally sourced clinical data (e.g., clinical viewer). |
The SMART App has new or updated clinical data that needs to be stored in the PoC system.
A Point of Care Solution wants to discover and initiate onboarding for backend services offered by a target system. The Point of Care Solution discovers backend services through the App Catalog and initiates onboarding with a selected target system by providing the context needed for that system to evaluate trust and determine the appropriate next steps.
This use case covers the discovery and bootstrap interaction only. It does not represent the ongoing data exchange between systems.
Dr. Lee's clinic wants to enable an external consultation service that supports asynchronous referral workflows. A PoC administrator reviews the available backend services in the App Catalog and approves one for onboarding, with the goal of enabling the consultation service to securely access and update the patient information needed to support the clinic's referral workflows.
After approval, the Point of Care Solution sends an onboarding request to the backend service and provides the information needed to start the onboarding process. The backend service reviews the supplied context, evaluates trust, and determines whether and how to proceed with registration or other onboarding steps according to jurisdictional and deployment policy.
| People | Systems |
|---|---|
| PoC Administrator: The person who reviews and approves backend services. | Point of Care Solution (PoC): The clinical application that presents App Catalog entries, captures administrator approval, and initiates backend service onboarding. |
| App Catalog: The catalog that publishes backend service entries and the information needed to discover and begin onboarding. | |
| Backend Service: The target system that receives the onboarding request, evaluates trust, and determines next onboarding steps. |
The use case starts when a PoC administrator chooses to enable a backend service and the PoC needs to initiate discovery and onboarding with that target system.
A backend service wants to access patient data from a Point of Care Solution to support a clinical workflow outside of an interactive user session. The backend service may retrieve patient information, clinical context, requests, orders, documents, or other relevant data required to support an external digital health service.
Dr. Lee, a family physician, submits a consultation request for a patient from within their Point of Care Solution. After the request is submitted, an external consultation service uses backend service authorization to access relevant patient data from the originating Point of Care Solution.
The service retrieves the patient context, originating request, supporting information, and any updates made by the referring provider. This allows the external consultation workflow to remain aligned with the patient record after the initial user-driven interaction has completed.
| People | Systems |
|---|---|
| Care Provider: The clinician whose patient data is being accessed to support the clinical workflow. | Point of Care Solution (PoC): The clinical application used by the care provider to access and manage patient information. |
| Backend Service: The external service that accesses patient data from the Point of Care Solution to support a clinical workflow. |
The backend service initiates this use case when it needs to retrieve patient data from the Point of Care Solution to support an active clinical workflow.
A backend service wants to write patient data to a Point of Care Solution to support a clinical workflow outside of an interactive user session. Subject to the permissions and applicable privacy, security, and jurisdictional policies of the Point of Care Solution, the backend service may create, update, or delete patient information, clinical context, requests, orders, documents, notifications, tasks, or other relevant data required to support an external digital health service.
Dr. Lee, a family physician, submits a consultation request for a patient from within their Point of Care Solution. As the consultation progresses, an external consultation service uses backend service authorization to write relevant workflow updates back to the originating Point of Care Solution.
The service may update the originating request, create a notification for the referring provider, assign a follow-up task, or file a completed consultation report in the patient record. This allows the Point of Care Solution to remain aligned with the external consultation workflow after the initial user-driven interaction has completed.
| People | Systems |
|---|---|
| Care Provider: The clinician whose patient record is updated to support the clinical workflow. | Point of Care Solution (PoC): The clinical application used by the care provider to access and manage patient information. |
| Backend Service: The external service that writes patient data to the Point of Care Solution to support a clinical workflow. |
The backend service initiates this use case when it needs to write patient data to the Point of Care Solution to support an active clinical workflow.
