Chairman’s Xmas Message
Kia ora koutou,
2021 has proved to be another taxing year for everyone and it’s hard to recall a year when everyone has been looking forward quite so eagerly to the holiday season! However, it’s also been a year of great progress and achievements in digital health with implementers rising to the challenges raised by the ongoing pandemic.
In the standards world, we have recently celebrated the 10th year anniversary of HL7® FHIR® and this year has seen another major growth in its use both worldwide and in New Zealand. Certainly the year’s highlight, from an Affiliate viewpoint, has been the support we’ve been able to offer the local community via our New Zealand Base FHIR Implementation Guide and a series of webinars in which our members have demonstrated the use of FHIR in their products and services.
Naturally, we have continued to miss meeting our members in person, but virtual communication platforms have enabled us to maintain regular contact and, somewhat ironically, facilitate wider engagement with the worldwide FHIR community – particularly for those not adverse to unsocial hours! I would also like to acknowledge the wonderful level of engagement provided by our partners at HiNZ, NZHIT and The Ministry of Health – barely a week seems to pass without at least one of them providing a ‘must attend’ virtual event.
While the course of the pandemic remains uncertain, the year is ending on some optimistic notes, in particularly the funding allocation for Hira, the National Health Information Platform Project. HL7 New Zealand looks forward to supporting this critical ecosystem of data and digital services by adding further FHIR conformance artefacts to our Base Implementation Guide. This work, together with progressing the International Patient Summary, is underpinned by our recently-renewed MOU with HISO
On a personal note, the year ended with the closure of Patients First Ltd, my long-term client and a leading implementer and supporter of HL7 standards in national projects. I would like to take this opportunity for thank all involved for their incredible support over the past decade, or so, and wish them well in their new endeavours.
Finally, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all our members and other industry partners for their support and engagement in the past year and I hope that you and your families enjoy a well-earned Christmas and New Year break. See you all in 2022 – hopefully, in person!
Ngā mihi o te wā,
Peter Jordan, Chairman HL7 New Zealand
December 19, 2021
HL7NZ Webinar Series 2021 – Implementing a FHIR® Based Medications Management Solution
Thank you to Greg Garrett, and the Medimap team for presenting, and to the participants that took part our final webinar for 2021 held on Thursday 9 December 2021
You can find the Powerpoint presentation HERE
Don’t forget to send topic suggestions for future webinars to admin@hl7.org.nz