IHE North American Connectathon 21
Global Health Track
Connectathon Standards Acceleration Tracks
NEW: IHE Standards Acceleration Tracks support a combination of education, demonstration, and development activities aimed to drive continuity and accelerated progress between IHE and HL7 Connectathons through fostering increased collaboration between communities of implementers.
Here is how attendees can interact with the Connectathon’s Global Health Standards Acceleration track.
Participant Roadmap:
- Track Kickoff Session – Start by viewing a brief, but informative overview of the standard acceleration track activities that will provide a high level understanding of the track’s goals and objectives
- IHE Deep Dives – Dive into the selection of curated demand programming detailing the various content, software and services that serve as the foundation of the standards acceleration track’s focus. Each IHE Deep Dive features different key profiles, implementation guides, interoperability tools and initiatives, providing participants the context and a foundation to engage in standards acceleration activities at this Connectathon and in future events. Connectathon programming will be available for participants for up to 60 days after the event.
- Standards Acceleration Labs – LIVE - Roll up your sleeves and join a live and interactive session with key stakeholders including specification authors, tool developers, application developers, implementers, policymakers, and end users that provide participants a hands-on and immersive experience to learn about the unique combination of technologies, polices, and human interaction necessary to drive adoption of emerging and updated interoperability requirements
Additional on-demand content is available in the form of cross-over programs that are relevant to more than one standards acceleration track, and open programming that is generally available Connectathon conference content.
Standards Acceleration: Global Health Track
Open Source Interoperability Driving Global Digital Health Transformation
In this age of global health emergencies, a diverse partnership comes together to drive health data interoperability with the help of communities committed to accelerating progress and developing scalable, open source interoperability testing.
Participants in the Global Health Standards Acceleration track at the IHE North American Connectathon will gain a deep understanding of how IHE integration profiles and FHIR® resources can operationalize an enterprise health infostructure (information + infrastructure) framework. This framework will illustrate how regional health information exchange initiatives can be supported and will demonstrate effective ways to leverage emerging technologies in collaboration with legacy health IT investments and efforts.
Nations around the world are working diligently to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and implement the largest immunization program in human history. Impactful health data interoperability, at a global scale, now takes on an urgency as the world economy tries to restart. To join this endeavor, a group of public and private healthcare IT stakeholders have come together to leverage expertise from the full breadth of relevant organizations – governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, provider organizations and health IT developers. The shared goal is to enable collaboration through a Global Health Standards Acceleration track. This track empowers open-source, project-based, health information exchange and the development, testing, refinement, and deployment of consistent, high-quality, standards-based interoperability solutions.
Encouraged by the Global Consortium for eHealth Interoperability, stakeholders from HIMSS, IHE International, HL7 International, IHE USA, IHE Canada, IHE Europe, OpenMRS, OpenHIE, and a steadily increasing list of international partners have joined together to accelerate health data interoperability deployment in a first ever Global Health Standards Acceleration track. This one-of-a-kind participatory experience will provide the global health community with continuity, shared resources, and an opportunity to advance interoperability throughout the year. This collaborative initiative will leverage IHE’s long valued, open source virtual testing platform, Gazelle, and an expanding suite of IHE Connectathon and other industry supported interoperability and conformance testing tools. The Global Health Standards Acceleration track will include a combination of education, demonstration, and development activities which will foster increased collaboration between global communities of implementers at IHE and HL7 FHIR® Connectathons, starting in March at the IHE North American Connectathon and progressing from event to event over 2021.
Join us to help accelerate the consistent deployment of an implementable enterprise architecture based on broadly adopted, conformance testable, FHIR®-based health informatics standards that support national digital health programs across the globe.
Global Health Track Programming:
- Kickoff Session: A Call to Action on Global eHealth Interoperability with Dr. Walter Suarez
The time for action on global interoperability is now. The COVID-19 global pandemic and the enormous vaccination response ahead in 2021 are two stark reminders of the need for stakeholders across the public and private sector to come together in collective action to share interoperability best practices and turn interoperability roadmaps into reality. Join Walter Suarez, MD, MPH, FHIMSS - Vice Chair of the Global Consortium for eHealth Interoperability, Chair of the HL7 Board of Directors, and Executive Director, Health IT Strategy and Policy Kaiser Permanente as he kicks off the global health standards acceleration track and learn about interoperability as a global good. The global health standards acceleration track will feature a variety of content, software and services that support the development of an open source FHIR(R) based health information exchange for use around the globe.
- IHE Deep Dive: Open HIE/OpenMRS Overview
OpenMRS is a platform that countries and implementers use to create a customized EMR system with a common platform, the availability of a concept dictionary, and core set of modules in response to actual needs on the ground. OpenHIE is a reusable architectural framework that introduces a service oriented approach, maximally leverages health information standards, enables flexible implementation by country partners, and supports interchangeability of individual components. These two reference architectures and communities are driving the digital transformation of healthcare around the world. Attend this session to learn about the technical foundations supporting these two health IT global goods and how organizations around the world are leveraging these powerful communities.
- IHE Deep Dive: How IHE MHDS (Mobile Health Documents Sharing) IHE Profile Works
The Mobile Health Document Sharing (MHDS) IHE integration profile defines one standardized interface to health documents (a.k.a. an Application Programming Interface (API)) for use by mobile devices so that deployment of mobile applications is more consistent and reusable. This Connection Lab session will focus on how to integrate the Mobile Access to Health Documents profile into your health IT solution, how the MHD profile supports COVID19-related care delivery, and its impact on data sharing regulations around the globe.
The International Patient Summary, developed collaboratively between ONC, HL7® International, IHE International, and the European Commission is designed to support patient mobility abroad by providing a standardized set of basic personal and medical data at the point of care. This IHE Connection Lab session will focus on how to integrate the International Patient Summary profile, the IPS projects from across the world and the importance of collaborative interoperability efforts that span the globe.
- IHE Deep Dive: Projectathons and the Testing and Implementation Continuum
Projectathons are designed to accelerate standards based, regional deployment projects by aligning the development of technology solutions with the right regional, national, and international constraints to support interoperability. Projectathons provide customized test plans and test tools to support the validation of region-specific needs, with the aim of developing consistent and high quality implementation guidance to support a more robust interoperable ecosystem. Projectathons are governed under the supervision of the lead organization for the project. Test methods are customized to fit the project specifications. Criteria are developed and vetted by the project team that is comprised of a cross section of regional, national, and international subject matter experts representing the project stakeholders supported by Projectathon staff. Learn more about Projectathons and how to accelerate health IT deployment based on shared experiences from recent experiences.
- Blueprint for a Digital Health System – the Digital Health Indicator
Join experts from HIMSS Analytics International and the HIMSS Office of Scientific Research, and members of the Global Digital Health Partnership as they discuss the effective implementation of the four dimensions of digital health. Join Anne Snowdon, RN, PhD, FAAN, Director of Clinical Research at the HIMSS Office of Scientific Research to learn how the Global Digital Health Partnership and national eHealth programs assess their baselines and measure progress towards advancing digital health systems.
- Standards Acceleration Lab: Deploying the International Patient Summary and Immunization Content Profiles (LIVE session)
As the world embarks on the largest vaccination initiative in its history, the health IT community is called to the front line to ensure the seamless, secure exchange and management of people's immunization status. Take action for global change and participate in IHE's Impact Workshop to learn how to leverage IHE's International Patient Summary and Immunization Content integration profiles to help your health IT solution respond to this important global initiative.