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The Caliper FHIR Accelerator implementation community has been organized with multiple industry partners and collaborators to improve medical and personal health devices data exchange.

Dr. Don Rucker, now chief strategy officer with 1upHealth, weighs in on where TEFCA is headed and his fundamental concerns about veering away from the way the rest of industry computes.

Former National Coordinator for Health IT Dr. Don Rucker discusses what's next for interoperability and why he sees TEFCA as a "solid first step."

InterOp.Community – a joint project of the Interoperability Institute, IHE USA, Interopion and Red Hat – aims to advance health information sharing via open platforms and open source software.

A newly-announced collaboration between two key players in the field seems to point to signs of change.

They'll create and update new standards, profiles and implementation guides, helping to transition to more modern APIs that make it easier to  exchange data securely via smartphone.

PCHAlliance and Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise seek to enhance continuity of care by working on mobile health apps and personal health monitoring devices.

Also: French academic hospital CHRU de Nancy announces 10-year enterprise informatics agreement with Royal Philips, former NHS England director Sir Bruce Keogh joins messaging app firm and others. 

Cambridge-headquartered InterSystems today announced that MediWay Technology, a China-based healthcare software company, has built and deployed its new iMedical Cloud healthcare IT ecosystem platform using InterSystems IRIS for Health. IRIS for Health was launched in October 2018 and is built upon the InterSystems IRIS Data Platform (which was made generally available in February 2018), combines transaction processing and analytics with embedded interoperability to offer a fast development platform for building mission-critical applications at scale. Some of the IRIS for Health data platform’s features include: An application framework for rapid development of solutions using Health Level Seven (HL7) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), including FHIR Server and SMART on FHIR capabilities. Out–of-the-box support for every major U.S. and regional l healthcare interoperability standard and certification, including HL7 Versions 2 and 3, Consolidated CDA (C-CDA), integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE), ASTM International, X12, NCPDP, DICOM, and others. A normalised and extensible healthcare data model that allows for seamless transitions between standards. Why it matters MediWay’s iMedical healthcare information system (HIS) is used by around 500 healthcare organisations, including more than 300 tertiary hospitals and 30 top-100 hospitals in China. To accelerate the digital transformation of healthcare, however, MediWay and its partner Tencent Cloud require higher levels of accessibility, scalability and interoperability. Two iMedical Cloud applications, available to all healthcare stakeholders hosted on Tencent Cloud, have been launched with two core functionalities – transactional cloud collaboration (Cloud HIS) and data cloud collaboration (HealthChain). iMedical Cloud can be used within a region for real-time healthcare information exchange, centralised management control and unified allocation of resources. IRIS for Health supports the vastly increased data volumes required with features like sharding. This distributes data across a number of cloud-based servers to provide flexible, inexpensive performance scaling. IRIS for Health’s support for cloud-first development using container technology also allows MediWay Technology to take full advantage of the strategic partnership between its parent company, DHC Software, and Tencent Cloud. This enables MediWay to continue to integrate technologies such as AI, blockchain, and speech input with its cloud-based healthcare solution. On the record “A cloud solution solves many pain points in healthcare,” said William Han, Chairman and CEO of MediWay Technology. “For example, it can provide a healthcare information system for county clinics, community healthcare centres and small-to-medium sized hospitals without the need for computer rooms, local servers or maintenance staff. By supporting our strategic pivot, InterSystems and its IRIS for Health technology have yet again shown the true partnership we’ve come to expect after 20 years of collaboration.”

Key European eHealth interoperability experts gathered in Brussels, Belgium, last week to discuss a multi-stakeholder initiative that could allow a one-time interoperability testing of eHealth products with mutual recognition across the EU and beyond. New usages, new technologies, an ageing population and many other factors have contributed to a change in healthcare, leading to more connectivity between systems and an increasing need for interoperability. Organised by the EURO-CAS project partners under the Horizon 2020 European research and innovation programme, including, among others, Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise Europe (IHE Europe), Agence eSanté Luxembourg, the European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research (EIBIR) and Personal Connected Health Alliance (PCHAlliance), attendees looked at the potential use and scale of introducing a Conformity Assessment Scheme for Europe (CASforEU) based on existing well-used norms and standards to overcome interoperability challenges in the healthcare sector. Webinar: Interoperability Sets the Foundation for Care Coordination Dr Ceri Thomson, Head of Policy Sector, eHealth, Well-Being and Ageing at DG Connect, European Commission, stressed the importance of breaking down data silos and estimated that CASforEU could contribute to the key pillars for the transformation of digital health and care.  There are currently several examples of best practice of cross-border health information exchanges in the field of ePrescriptions and patient summaries that could be extended to other use cases, such as laboratory tests, images, discharge letters – but these are all subject to fundamental underpinning infrastructures being in place, Dr Thomson explained. CASforEU governance. Source: EURO-CAS project “Workshops in several Members States confirmed the need for pragmatic interoperability testing, and CASforEU as a solution," said Karima Bourquard, IHE-Europe Director of Interoperability. Assessing conformance to a common set of standards is critical for the future. A scheme like CASforEU could avoid costly and time-consuming need for re-testing across different countries and regions, it was argued. “The EURO-CAS Organization will drive CASforEU and be the place where procurers, vendors, users and all interested parties from all Europe can meet to ensure optimal applicability," added Samuel Danhardt, Interoperability Expert at Agence eSanté Luxembourg. For more harmonisation, CASforEU will be aligned with other existing international schemes, such as IHE-CAS and PCHAlliance’s Continua Certification, relying on ISO/IEC 17025 accredited test laboratories for EU-wide recognition. As discussed at the meeting, when put in practice, healthcare providers could procure CASforEU products or request testing before buying to ensure interoperability, and vendors would only need to do the CASforEU test once to access the Digital Single Market. Anett Molnar is a Senior Manager, Public Policy and Engagement, for HIMSS EMEA.