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ADR 0001: service-first, local, synthetic, non-production v1

Status: proposed for approval
Date: 2026-07-13
Deciders: founder, clinical safety chair, community co-chair, security/privacy lead, design-partner technical owner
Review trigger: two completed pilots or any request for production, real-patient, hosted, imaging, pharmacy, or CDS operation

Context

The product hypothesis spans multiple proprietary clinical systems and high-consequence semantics. A universal automated integration platform would require production credentials, vendor-specific write paths, PHI handling, hosting, and much broader regulatory/security operations before the core customer value is proven.

The core question is smaller: can a governed synthetic pack reveal meaningful cross-system defects and improve a release decision?

Decision

ContextSafe v1 is:

  • a professional service supported by a small open-inspectable local runner;
  • limited to customer-controlled non-production environments;
  • limited to obviously synthetic test records and approved evidence fields;
  • file-first, with optional P1 read-only FHIR collection;
  • scoped to registration, EHR, HL7 v2 or FHIR, LIS, and result return;
  • deterministic, with no AI in evidence, evaluation, or explanation;
  • based on a fixed governed pack and partner-approved local mappings;
  • delivered as signed JSON plus accessible static HTML receipt;
  • explicit that human clinical/community approval and customer disposition cannot be automated.

V1 will not include a hosted multi-tenant service, universal write adapters, production canaries, real patient data, continuous monitoring, RIS/DICOM, pharmacy, billing, CDS, or patient-specific recommendations.

Why

  • Minimizes risk of PHI and trans-sensitive data exposure.
  • Separates validation of the product thesis from enterprise-platform work.
  • Makes multi-vendor use possible through exports.
  • Preserves source evidence and local control.
  • Is feasible for the funded 40-week F/E core-team model: the founder plus scheduled product/research delivery lead, the scheduled engineering pool, and paid expert reviewers.
  • Makes custom work visible as service cost.
  • Allows later integration based on repeated demand.

Consequences

Positive

  • Smaller attack and regulatory surface.
  • Lower procurement burden than hosted PHI processing.
  • Deterministic and reproducible receipts.
  • Can work where write APIs are unavailable.
  • Clinical governance is the product core rather than an afterthought.

Negative

  • Manual collection and mapping increase service hours.
  • Customer staging quality may limit evidence.
  • No real-time/production assurance.
  • Local support across operating systems adds packaging work.
  • Results may not transfer across partners without mappings.
  • Buyer may perceive service as consulting rather than software.

Risks accepted

  • A finite synthetic pack cannot prove safety for untested people/workflows.
  • PHI detection cannot prove an export is safe.
  • File evidence may omit behavior visible only in a user interface.
  • One design partner is validation, not market proof.

These risks must remain explicit in receipts and sales.

Alternatives considered

Hosted SaaS from day one

Rejected for v1: tenancy, authentication, PHI/BA posture, SOC 2 expectations, breach surface, and collaboration UI do not prove the evaluator's value.

Production synthetic monitoring

Rejected: synthetic records could reach billing, reporting, care, analytics, or patient communications. This requires a separate safety architecture and vendor approval.

Universal EHR/LIS write adapters

Rejected: expensive vendor-specific automation with high privileges and fragile UI/API behavior. Customer operators use approved creation mechanisms.

Pack-only PDF/checklist

Not selected as the target because it lacks reproducible evidence/provenance, but it is the fallback if legal or access constraints block software.

Build on Inferno

Deferred: Inferno is strong FHIR conformance prior art, but the first pathway includes non-FHIR files, LIS behavior, human dispositions, and a small core-team-maintained scope. ContextSafe may export or reuse Inferno evidence rather than compete with it.

Generate a population with Synthea/Synset

Rejected as the core: v1 needs controlled edge cases and approved expected behavior, not statistical realism or volume. Those tools remain potential inputs/partners.

Guardrails

  1. Any endpoint marked production is rejected.
  2. Any non-synthetic identifier or prohibited free text blocks persistence.
  3. Missing evidence cannot pass.
  4. GI, RSG, SPCU, NtU, and pronouns remain distinct types; no local mapping, customer approval, or disclosed deviation can convert GI/RSG into SPCU.
  5. No clinical assertion runs without current named approvals.
  6. No machine closes a clinical safety finding.
  7. Receipt never claims compliance, certification, or general safety.
  8. Partner-specific clinical policy is labeled local.
  9. Raw customer evidence remains local by default.
  10. Scope expansion requires a new ADR plus security, clinical, community, and legal review.

Revisit criteria

Consider a read-only adapter after two partners repeat the same safe collection task. Consider hosted collaboration only after at least five annual customers request it and can fund dedicated security/operations. Consider a new clinical domain only with a separate governed pack and qualified specialist.

Reversal requires:

  • validated customer/job evidence;
  • architecture and threat model;
  • privacy/HIPAA and FDA/CDS/UPL/UPM legal memo;
  • clinical/community governance approval;
  • staffing and insurance;
  • new success and kill gates.

Validation

This decision succeeds if one design partner runs at least 10 cases through all four checkpoints, obtains a reproducible receipt, detects and correctly localizes all 36 published faults plus all five hidden challenges, passes the no-PHI gates, reruns after remediation, uses the P0 delta receipt in a release decision, and demonstrates the predeclared time/control-value outcome within the 40-week plan. Naturally occurring partner defects are reported outcomes, never a quota.

It fails if file collection cannot show the necessary behavior, delivery exceeds 120 F-pool hours, no funded buyer exists, or legal/safety review requires production/patient-specific operation for value.