Nictiz Develops Hospital Reference Architecture with
Enterprise Architect

Nictiz, the Dutch competence center for e-health, has leveraged Enterprise Architect to develop ZiRA, the hospital reference architecture. ZiRA has gained significant attention beyond the Netherlands, serving as a framework to streamline hospital IT inventory, development, and innovation. To further its adoption, a practical handbook has been created, highlighting key use cases and best practices.

Nictiz, the Dutch competence center for e-health, developed the ZiRA (Ziekenhuis Reference Architecture) to provide a unified framework for managing hospital IT. Dutch hospitals faced similar IT issues but lacked a common reference model for collaboration. By gathering a team of IT specialists from various hospitals, ZiRA was designed using Enterprise Architect. Today, this model is widely used across the Netherlands and beyond, including by institutions like Karolinska Institute in Sweden, Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, AVL Hospital in Amsterdam, and Gelre Hospitals.

Challenge

Hospitals in Europe have struggled with several IT challenges:

Fragmented IT Practices: Different hospitals managed IT in siloed ways, resulting in inconsistent architectures and disconnected information systems.
Outdated Documentation: The long-standing Domain Reference Model for Hospitals was no longer sufficient to capture modern requirements, leading to inefficiencies.
Lack of Standardized Collaboration: Hospitals needed a framework that could support knowledge sharing and standard practices across various IT domains.
Complex IT Landscapes: With interdependencies among hardware, software, and infrastructure, maintaining an accurate and up-to-date overview was a constant challenge.
Risk Management and Process Clarity: Effective management of business processes and risks was hindered by the absence of a cohesive, flexible model.

Solution

The ZiRA reference architecture, built using the Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect, tackles these challenges head-on. By leveraging Enterprise Architect, hospitals can now:

Standardize IT Documentation: ZiRA provides a clear, adaptable model that aligns with real-world practices. A practical handbook offers real use cases and best practices, guiding hospitals to structure and document their IT landscape efficiently.

Managing Architecture Repository using Enterprise Architect

Enhance Collaboration: With ZiRA integrated into the iZiekenhuis community, hospitals can share insights, hold regular workshops, and exchange expertise on healthcare IT.
Map Complex IT Landscapes: At Erasmus University Medical Centre, for example, the Enterprise Architecture Repository incorporates data from CMDBs, aligning IT components such as networks, servers, and applications into one consistent model.

Example of Medical History Collection by Erasmus MC

Support Business and Risk Management: Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (AVL) Hospital uses ZiRA to detail treatment workflows and risk management processes, while Gelre Hospitals leverage the model to develop a robust business information framework.
Extend Beyond Borders: The Karolinska Institute in Sweden has adopted the ZiRA model to form the basis for their healthcare capability model, proving its adaptability and impact across international settings.