Medical Markup Language (MML)

The Special Interest Group of the Japan Association for Medical Informatics “Electronic Health Record Research Group” [8] has been studying methods for exchanging medical data between different facilities since 1994.

In 1995, the idea that data with attributes could be exchanged was born. It was then put into practice with Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). This standard was named the Medical Markup Language (MML). The group members have participated in the Electronic Medical Chart Research Project of the Health and Welfare Ministry established in 1995. They have been involved in this research and development for 3 years. The exchange standard has been improved to a practicable level through this process. To implement information (e.g. images) that cannot be expressed in the MML, the method to refer to external files such as DICOM from the MML instance was established [2, 3].

Along with installation of the MML, specific design was required for various departments. It is not possible to cover all medical departments here. Considering the influence on the entire structure due to potentially frequent new designs/changes, it is not efficient to control the MML with respect to the various versions. Therefore, the MML was integrated into a module with XML Namespace suggested by W3C in March 1999 so that modules may be combined for the application concerned as required. This has resulted in a descriptive method particular to each medical department, and in the separation of a logical development structure. This specification and relevant data is disclosed/controlled at the site of the MedXML [1].