IHE USA is proud to provide additional support to AI and the HL7 SANER IG Project (https://ainq.com/thesanerproject/) at the May HL7 FHIR(R Connectathon. IHE USA is participating as an active contributor to the project by funding resources to develop test plans, monitor testing, and coordinate the use of related open source testing tools.
IHE International and HL7 International and their communities share a common goal to enable health data interoperability through the development and testing of interoperability specifications, profiles, and implementation guides.
“The HL7® SANER Project provides the perfect umbrella to foster stronger industry-wide collaborations, unlock new innovation pathways, and accelerate the deployment of interoperable health IT to support the nationwide COVID-19 Response,” said Amit Trivedi, Director of Health IT Standards and Informatics at HIMSS and IHE USA liaison.
The HL7 SANER project is led by Audacious Inquiry and long-time HL7 and IHE contributor, Keith Boone (@motorcycleguy). The project is an open-source solution to streamline and accelerate real-time transmission of de-identified data among health care facilities, critical infrastructure, and governmental response authorities during public health emergencies and disasters. “Our goal after Connectathon is to get pilots going.” Keith says about next steps, “My hope is that we’ll have pilots in place before Hurricane season, and be in production before the height of the next flu season.”
The project leverages application programming interfaces (APIs) using HL7® Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®). “We are using the public health reporting needs stressed by the COVID-19 global health emergency to exercise and improve the FHIR specification so that we can better automate a faster response to the next crisis,” said John Moehrke, Healthcare Informatics Standards Architect and Lead Technical Consultant for the IHE USA Project team. IHE USA will continue to participate in FHIR® Connectathons and related events to support testing and advance the adoption of standards based interoperability in healthcare.
IHE USA, a national deployment committee of IHE International, hosts the annual IHE North American Connectathon and supports the deployment of IHE Technical Frameworks, which are freely available in the public domain and serve as detailed implementation guides to achieve consistent system integration. IHE USA is also collaborating with the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC), in a cooperative agreement to accelerate progress of the use of FHIR® as an alternative or complement to existing IHE document-based exchange specifications.