Digital Health Interoperability Network (DHIN)

Dear colleagues, we’re excited to invite you for Digital Health Week 2024! Our theme is focused on “Digital health, data & patient-centric care: Putting people first in digital transformation.” Date: Wednesday, November 6, 2024 Time: 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM East Africa Time (EAT) Venue: Virtual Event (Zoom) Stay tuned for more details!

Our Top 5 Interoperability Frameworks Leading the Future of Global Health As the world increasingly turns to digital health solutions, interoperability frameworks are essential in ensuring that health data can flow seamlessly across systems. This week, we are highlighting five frameworks essential and are leading the charge: 1. FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) – Simplifies syntax of data sharing and enables patient access to health data through apps. A key player in the future of personalized care. 2. OpenHIE (Open Health Information Exchange) – widely used by low-resource environments, OpenHIE architecture help health data sharing in underserved regions. 3. IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise) – Bridges gaps between different healthcare systems and improves workflow integration across various domains. 4. XDS (Cross-Enterprise Document Sharing) – Facilitates sharing of health documents across healthcare enterprises, ensuring a unified patient view. 5. SNOMED CT (Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine - Clinical Terms) – Standardizes healthcare terminology is the largest semantic ontology widely facilitating accurate data exchange, and essential for clinical research and global care coordination. Which of these frameworks are you working with for your healthcare projects? #FHIR #GlobalHealth #InteroperabilityFramework #DigitalHealth #HealthcareInnovation #HealthTech #GlobalHealth

Become a member of our Community of Practice (CoP) at the Digital Health Interoperability Network (DHIN). Our CoP is a dynamic platform where health IT developers, implementers, stakeholders, decision-makers, researchers, and thought leaders converge to drive collaboration, knowledge sharing, and innovation in digital health and interoperability. By joining our CoP, you gain access to unparalleled opportunities for growth, collaboration, and impact: 1. Collaborate with industry experts and network with professionals leading advancements in digital health and interoperability. 2. Showcase your expertise and groundbreaking projects, exchange best practices with peers, and collaborate on transformative initiatives that address critical healthcare challenges. 3. Participate in strategic discussions that shape the development and implementation of frameworks and standards, influencing the future of health systems. Register here: https://bit.ly/4eJlVpo

Identifying Opportunities to Strengthen the Public Health Informatics Infrastructure: Exploring Hospitals’ Challenges with Data Exchange This research uncovers key barriers hospitals face when exchanging data with public health agencies. The findings reveal critical opportunities to improve interoperability within healthcare: Key Challenges: 1. Interoperability Gaps – Hospitals struggle with integrating electronic health record (EHR) systems across different platforms, exacerbated by the lack of standardized data exchange protocols. This fragmentation hinders seamless data sharing and the ability to respond quickly to public health needs. 2. Inconsistent Standards: The absence of unified technical standards across health systems results in data silos, reducing the effectiveness of public health reporting and decision-making. Simplifying and unifying these standards is essential for smoother collaboration between hospitals and public health bodies. 3. Organizational Issues – Public health agencies face workforce shortages and limited funding, which makes it difficult to maintain the infrastructure needed to support advanced data exchange. This research reinforces the urgent need for standardized solutions to improve public health reporting and decision-making through seamless interoperability. Full research: https://lnkd.in/efV-kq8W

Consultation with health IT vendors - shaping Australia's Health Information Exchange As the steward for digital enablement of Australia’s health system, the Australian Digital Health Agency (the Agency) plays a pivotal role in coordinating national engagement, delivery, and adoption of digital health initiatives. Our mission is to enable person-centred, connected healthcare across the nation. Our aim is to transform the national infrastructure into a modern, data-rich ecosystem that seamlessly connects systems and provides real-time access to information for patients and care teams anytime, anywhere. A key component of this transformation is the development of the Health Information Exchange (HIE). The HIE will play a central role in facilitating person-centred, connected healthcare across the country by ensuring seamless information flow between various healthcare settings.    The HIE will deliver a set of national capabilities using a consistent approach, based on agreed standards, to facilitate the sharing of health information across existing systems such as My Health Record and other data sources. It will evolve and deliver new functions over time to meet the continuous changing needs of clinicians and consumers. We want to hear your views to ensure the HIE is fit for purpose and able to meet the needs of all Australians. The draft HIE Architecture and Roadmap document (https://lnkd.in/g6Bc2z2f) has been developed following initial consultation and this will form the basis of our discussion on 28 October 2024.   Register to join us in shaping Australia’s HIE through a technical review of the Architecture and Roadmap document which outlines the proposed technical approach and the indicative implementation roadmap. We are releasing this document as an early draft for consideration by our valued software vendor partners to help further craft the vision of the HIE.   When: 28 October 2024  Where: Virtual Time: 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM AEDT Webinar registration: https://lnkd.in/g4bj4PcK   Your technical feedback can be provided via the questions outlined in the online survey (https://lnkd.in/g8vfFuYy). All feedback must be received no later than 8 November 2024.   A recording of the information session, any questions from Slido and the associated answers will be published on digitalhealth.gov.au following the event. Further consultation with other critical stakeholders such as healthcare consumers and clinicians will occur in the coming months as we firm up this draft architecture and roadmap.

It was a privilege to be able to share my perspective on the implementation of longitudinal health records in the NHS at the United Nations Digital Health Symposium in New York today. I told the story of Rosie, my niece, an incredible young person who is affected by the inability of the NHS to share data and empower citizens. You can read more about it in this article. Thanks to Martin Curley and the Innovation Value Institute for the invitation

Another free #FHIR tool you need to know.

Register for this free training by #ASTP/ #ONC and #HL7 on #HL7 #FHIR security. Register and learn if you consider yourself one of the following: " -Healthcare CIOs, CTOs and CISOs -Health IT architects, developers, and engineers -Health information exchange (HIE) administrators and staff -Healthcare organization IT Managers, Directors, Department Heads, or others involved in system procurement -Healthcare payers, including insurance providers and government agencies " #digitalhealth #HIE and #interoperability

Thank you to everyone who attended our hybrid Community of Practice (CoP) meeting on Thursday. Your participation and insights were invaluable, and we’re delighted to have a vibrant and proactive community driving the interoperability conversation. We’re also thankful to our speakers: Elise Sweeney Anthony, Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and Executive Director, Office of Policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Victor Okrobodo, Senior Manager of Software Product & Services at eHealth Africa Systems Foundation/EHA Clinics Adam Buhari, Managing Director and Principal Partner at Open NG Technologies The insights shared by the EMR vendors on their integration successes and the scope of their implementations helped us gain a deeper understanding of their approaches and solutions. Elise brought fresh perspectives from the U.S. on the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA). TEFCA aims to streamline health data exchange by ensuring that Health Information Networks (HINs), healthcare providers, health plans, individuals, and other stakeholders have secure and reliable access to electronic health information when and where it is needed. We look forward to continued collaboration and seeing you at our future meetings.

Thank you to everyone who attended our hybrid Community of Practice (CoP) meeting on Thursday. Your participation and insights were invaluable, and we’re delighted to have a vibrant and proactive community driving the interoperability conversation. We’re also thankful to our speakers: Elise Sweeney Anthony, Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and Executive Director, Office of Policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Victor Okrobodo, Senior Manager of Software Product & Services at eHealth Africa Systems Foundation/EHA Clinics Adam Buhari, Managing Director and Principal Partner at Open NG Technologies The insights shared by the EMR vendors on their integration successes and the scope of their implementations helped us gain a deeper understanding of their approaches and solutions. Elise brought fresh perspectives from the U.S. on the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA). TEFCA aims to streamline health data exchange by ensuring that Health Information Networks (HINs), healthcare providers, health plans, individuals, and other stakeholders have secure and reliable access to electronic health information when and where it is needed. We look forward to continued collaboration and seeing you at our future meetings.