Enhancement of MML medical data exchange standard for a localized Chinese version.

Medical Markup Language (MML) is a standard for the exchange of medical data among different medical institutions. It was developed in Japan in 1995. Since version 2.21, MML has used eXtensible Markup Language (XML) as a meta-language. The latest version, 3.0, conforms to HL7 Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) and contains 14 modules and 36 data definition tables. In China, a standard which structures entire medical records in XML does not yet exist. Taking advantage of MML's flexibility, we created a localized Chinese version based on MML 3.0. Parts of the original specifications have been enhanced; these include a newly developed health insurance information module and 12 additional or redefined data definition tables. The Chinese version takes local needs into account and now makes it possible to exchange medical data among Chinese medical institutions.