Architecture for a content driven clinical information system

A tangible computer-readable storage medium including computer program code which, when executed, implements a content-based clinical information system comprising:

• a reference platform to define and provide core system capabilities and to interpret and execute content items while remaining application neutral;
• and
• a plurality of content items authored independent of the reference platform to define clinical functionality for one or more content-based clinical applications by leveraging the reference platform, wherein content items are to be interpreted by a content-based clinical application to at least one of define and modify at least one of presentation, behavior, and semantics of at least one of the content-based clinical application and application data consumed by the content-based clinical application,
• wherein the plurality of content items is to be created and deployed independently of the creation and deployment of the one or more content-based clinical applications, and wherein the plurality of content items is to remain independent of the implementation of the reference platform to allow independent evolution of the platform and the one or more content-based clinical applications.