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HL7NZ AGM 2018

All current HL7NZ members are invited to attend the HL7NZ AGM – Wed 28th November, 4pm at Sysmex NZ, 386 Manukau Road, Epsom, Auckland.

AGENDA  /  MINUTES 2017  /  BOARD NOMINATION and PROXY FORMREVISED CONSTITUTION CHANGES

(files available below)

Industry Briefing – MOH Architecture & Standards Working Groups

YOU’RE INVITED…DON’T MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY TO BE INVOLVED!

NZHIT is organising an industry briefing in conjunction with the Ministry of Health (MOH), the Architecture and Standards Working Groups and HL7NZ on Monday 29th October from 10am-1pm in Auckland – click here for more information.

This is your opportunity to receive an update direct from the MOH and the Working Groups, PLUS participate in a workshop so your input can be taken into account and factored into the development of standards for the key domain areas of Connected Health, Digital Identity and Interoperability.

Be very aware that these standards will have an influence on the type and direction of digital health services provided to NZ’s healthcare sector in the future. So, you are strongly advised to participate now so you can fully understand the changes that are being planned and have your say about them.

ATTENDANCE IS FREE and…..if your organisation is a NZHIT and/or HL7NZ member then you will receive priority booking status for this workshop.  If your organisation is not a NZHIT or HL7NZ member then you will be placed on a wait-list and notified if there is an available space for you to attend.

For more information on joining please click here for more information.

We look forward to seeing you at the briefing on the 29th!

Dr David Hay receives HL7® International Fellowship

HL7 New Zealand is pleased to announce that our Chair Emeritus, Dr David Hay, has been elected as a Fellow of HL7® International.  David is the first New Zealander to receive this honour which recognises his outstanding commitment and sustained contribution to HL7 International over a fifteen-year period, most recently as a Co-Chair of the HL7® FHIR® Management Group and creator of the popular ClinFHIR Tool.

David was inducted into the HL7 Fellows Programme at last week’s Working Group Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, USA where the major focus was on preparations for the upcoming Release 4 of FHIR, the first to contain normative content. Further details of this highly-significant work can be found in FHIR Product Director, Grahame Grieve’s meeting report at HERE.

HiNZ 2018 – featuring FHIR® Connectathon pre conf workshop

New Zealand’s first ‘official’ HL7® FHIR® Connectathon will be an interactive event in which participants can test their FHIR implementations, parts of the specification itself, or simply learn more about the most important new standard in healthcare information interoperability. The hands-on nature of the event encourages attendees to pass data, via APIs, between client applications and FHIR servers, plus utilise cloud-based testing services. 

The Connectathon will be divided into ‘streams’ that will focus on specific topics of interest to the NZ Sector. At this stage, subject to demand, we are planning to offer the following…

  1. Patient – specifically for those new to FHIR
  2. Terminology Services
  3. Adverse Event Reporting
  4. Directory Services
  5. Health Pathways

If you have suggestions about additional ‘streams’, or questions about the workshop content, please email HL7 chair Peter Jordan.

COST: 
$159 (for HiNZ or HL7NZ members)
$199 (for non-members)

We are seeking your input…

To better serve you and the greater FHIR community, HL7 is gathering information about FHIR usage worldwide. Your responses to a brief survey will help us guide the development of the FHIR standard in the coming years to ensure that your needs are being met. Please find the survey here

Developers on FHIR Challenge took place 17 March 2018

Read about this event in HINZ eHealthNews
HL7 New Zealand acknowledges the supporters of the 2018 “Developers on FHIR” Challenge 

An enthusiastic group got together in four teams at the University of Auckland this weekend to work on what you can do with FHIR to develop an interoperable adverse events reporting solution!  The goal was to use HL7 FHIR to create solutions for the improved collection, analysis and reporting of adverse event data. The group was also treated to a FHIR masterclass from Dr David Hay, one of the founding developers of FHIR and an international expert on it.  After much deliberation from our judges the winners were (in ranked order).

  1. Ad Rec
  2. FHIRoholics
  3. Medfriend
  4. FallsExtinguisher

Autumn News – March 2018

HL7 New Zealand – Autumn 2018 Update:

Since our last message at Xmas, we hope that you all enjoyed a good break and managed to enjoy or record summer temperatures.  It’s been a very busy start to 2018 for both Health Level Seven International (HL7®) and our local affiliate HL7NZ, starting with the January Working Group meeting in New Orleans. A Full Report  is available on our Web Site – suffice to say here that preparations for Release 4 of the HL7® FHIR® specification in October of this year are still well on track and the number of implementations of this ground-breaking standard is growing exponentially.

The HL7NZ Executive Board met recently and agreed a strategy based on ‘practical interoperability’ for the coming financial year. This includes confirmation of an exciting Event Calendar for the remainder of 2018, commencing with…


HL7NZ in Collaboration with The University of Auckland, announce the…

2018 “Developers on FHIR” Challenge

For those wishing to learn or demonstrate practical solutions development skills, using the ‘game-changing’ HL7® FHIR® standard, this event is underway and finishes with a full-day at the University of Auckland on Saturday 17th March. You will also get to rub shoulders with FHIR experts and others working in this field. Prizes will be awarded for the top three submissions as judged by health sectors leaders!  If you are an application architect, usability designer, developer or clinician working in the Health and Disability Sector – or a student with an active interest in digital healthcare – this event is for you!  Click here to REGISTER and gain more information – it is not too late to enter and participate. For regular updates go to…HL7NZ FHIR Chat Site

Further 2018 Event Plans (save the dates):

Monday 18th June – 9:00 am to 5:00 pm

Novotel, Auckland Airport

HL7® FHIR® and SNOMED CT® Implementation Showcase 

An opportunity for developers of digital healthcare applications, based on HL7® FHIR® and/or SNOMED CT®, to present their work and discuss their experiences in implementing the key interoperability standards underpinning the NZ Digital Healthcare Strategy.

Tuesday 20th November – 9:00 am to 5:00 pm (pre-HiNZ 2018 Conference Workshop)

TSB Arena / Shed 6, Queens Wharf, Wellington

HL7® New Zealand FHIR® Connectathon

New Zealand’s first ‘official’ HL7® FHIR® Connectathon will be an interactive event in which participants can test their FHIR implementations, parts of the specification itself, or simply learn more about the most important new standard in healthcare information interoperability. The hands-on nature of the event encourages attendees to pass data, via APIs, between client applications and FHIR servers, plus utilise cloud-based testing services. The Connectathon will be divided into ‘streams’ that will focus on specific topics of interest to the NZ Sector, such as patient access & case management, terminology and health pathways.

If you would like to see particular topics/issues discussed at these events please contact us admin@hl7.org.nz and if you are not already a member see www.hl7.org.nz we welcome your involvement.

Season’s Greetings from HL7NZ

At the end of my first full calendar year as HL7NZ Chairman, it’s time to reflect on a productive year for our Affiliate and look forward to the coming months. Hopefully, the fulfilment of our key goal of greatly increased outreach and engagement with the health and disability sector, including more regular updates, means that this final seasonal message can focus on providing some broader perspectives on 2017.

A key component of this strategy has been building membership and new partnerships with NZHIT and HINZ, the later providing our first-ever booth at their highly-successful 2017 Conference in Rotorua. I firmly believe that the combined resources and capabilities of our organisations can provide invaluable support to the designers and developers of digital health solutions.

In particular, we hope to continue to work on removing roadblocks, both technical and tactical, on the path to achieving heath data interoperability. Like another less worthy road, this is ‘paved with good intentions’, but also serious obstacles, notably data silos, that need to be eliminated if the greater objectives of a patient-centric health strategy are to be achieved. For example, in common with other users of patient portal products, it frustrates me that I cannot access this information, via an API, in the health and wellness monitoring application of my choice.

This not to say that the air of optimism that I expressed at the corresponding time last year has dissipated, rather that our progress has been slower than anticipated. In my annual report to the HL7NZ Board, I attributed this to the fractured nature of our health and disability sector, a period of governance changes and the ‘not invented here syndrome’. However, these are the headwinds against which we must sail and one must never underestimate the challenges of change management in our sector.

One increasingly bright light is the number of industry partners now exposing APIs based on HL7® FHIR® in open, ‘sandbox’ environments. One of these platforms will be used as one of the key components of our first 2018 event – the “Developers on FHIR” challenge – in partnership with The University of Auckland. This begins with a Webinar on December 19 and culminates on 17th March 2018 in a full day, hands-on event with submitted solutions judged by health sector leaders.

On the international front, next year will be a seminal one for HL7 as we prepare for Release 4 of FHIR – the first to contain normative content – and it would be wonderful to see as many HL7NZ members as possible contributing to this ground-breaking product. One only has to spend a short time on digital health and networking web sites to realise that FHIR has now been implemented by all of the major digital health software and cloud platform providers. Opportunities to participate in such a significant project are rare indeed!

Although FHIR has taken the world by storm, and is now HL7’s ‘primary standard’, that does not mean that we are withdrawing, or ignoring, our others standards. It is estimated that version 2 messaging will have a long usage tail and we will be engaging with the sector to gain consensus on migrating to what is likely to be the ‘final release’ of this product.

Finally, I’d like to extend sincere thanks to all of our members and benefactors (notably the Technology & Digital Services Team at the Ministry of Health) for their support in the past year and I hope that you and your families all enjoy a well-earned Christmas and New Year break. I look forward to continuing to work together with you all to progress interoperability in 2018.

Peter Jordan, Chairman HL7 New Zealand
admin@hl7.org.nz

2018 “Developers on FHIR” Challenge

HL7 New Zealand in Collaboration with The University of AucklandAnnounce the 2018 “Developers on FHIR” Challenge 

Developers on FHIR Challenge Event – 09.00 – 4.30 March 17th, 2018

This must attend, all-day event is the culmination of the HL7NZ Developer on FHIR Challenge 2018 and will take place at the Tamaki Campus of the University of Auckland
This is where you will present your solution to the judging panel. The top three submissions are eligible for prizes!
FHIR masterclass on 17th March. At the beginning of the day, Dr David Hay, one of the founding developers of FHIR and an international expert on it, will be giving a masterclass on how to use FHIR. This is your opportunity to learn the basics of FHIR and ask questions. Read more about the Challenge here >> https://goo.gl/PjWKMg.

Judges 

We have finalized three judges and I’m excited to tell you about them. Dr David Hay is New Zealand’s leading expert on the HL7® FHIR® standard. He was originally a GP who became interested in interoperability and subsequently became one of the founding developers of FHIR. He is also a member of the HL7 International FHIR Management Group. Dr John Fountain is the Medical Toxicologist of the National Poisons Centre. He has a particular interest in entrepreneurship and creating new solutions. He is an expert in the risks associated with medical care that result in adverse events. Peter Marks is the Manager of Architecture and Standards at the Ministry of Health. He brings international experience in architecture services, business development, and the development of technologies and their implementation to his role as judge.

Register for the Event 

To attend the event, make a submission, and be eligible for prizes, you must formally register and accept the terms and conditions of participation. 
Many of you have completed the form to express interest in participation, you now need to complete the formal registration form.

All-day Event Agenda and Instructions

Here’s the agenda for the day: Welcome and “state of the nation” with FHIR
— 30 minutesDevelopment session 1 (Teams code solutions)
— 2.5 hoursReview 1 – Feedback, learning and need help
— 30 minutesLunch and NetworkingDevelopment Session 2 (Teams code solutions)
— 2 hoursBreakSolution Pitch
— 1.5 hoursJudges Report and Feedback
— 30 minutesClose Click here for more details of the March 17th Event, including instructions and location >> Participant Instructions

Team Connections                                                                                                                          

A number of people have expressed interest in being connected to others to form teams. To help this process we have created an online sheet with the contact details of those seeking to connect with others. The online sheet enables you to update your entry to describe your skills, which if you edit and complete will help others identify how you can help them. If you are not listed and want to be included, please add your details to the bottom of the list. You can access this online resource here >> Developers on FHIR Participants Seeking to Join Teams It’s over to you to use this resource to connect with others!

Event Briefing

 For further details on the event, its objectives, making a submission, judging criteria, etc see the linked documents below

Event Kick-off Briefing PresentationParticipation Briefing

Need More Information – Go online to see the briefing document, slide deck and other resources (http://www.hl7.org.nz)

(Past updates)

Invitation to Join the Event Kick-off Teleconference – 12 pm Tuesday February 13th, 2018

Instructions for Joining the briefing Webinar at 12 pm on Tuesday February 13th 2018 NZDT

  1. The meeting is using Skype for Business
  2. Use the attached meeting invite to save this event in your calendar (It’s from Martin Entwistle HL7NZ Board Member)
  3. Use this link to access the meeting >> Join HL7NZ Developers on FHIR Challenge Briefing (https://meet.lync.com/enigmackm/ment/6DJWQBVP)
  4. You will be asked to download the Skype for Business app (if it possible to select the option to join via a web browser)
  5. All participants should join as a guest (even if you have an existing Skype for Business or Microsoft Account)
  6. Read the attached Event Briefing to get further background and prepare questions to raise with the event organisers in the Webinar

Follow-up to Briefing Webinar for Participants – December 19, 2017

A successful briefing session for participants in the Developers on FHIR Challenge 2018 was help on December 19, 2017. This page provides information on next steps action points, the Webinar slide-deck and the latest version of the Briefing for Participants document:

There are some next step action points to call-out:

  • Summary of Requirements for a Submission – slides 2 – 4 of the deck provide a succinct summary of the requirements for submission. If you have questions or require clarification, please contact us (admin@hl7.org.nz)
  • Planning a Submission and Forming Teams – we encourage you to begin planning the solution you would like to develop and submit. Working in teams will help significantly, so think about who you can collaborate with
  • Availability of Resources – HL7 NZ through our sponsor, Microsoft, will be making available a range of resources, including a FHIR server, to support development. Watch for more news on these, but we anticipate them being available for free to participants registered for the challenge before the end of January 2018
  • Discussion Group – We have established a topic on Zulip for participants to ask questions, make comments and connect with others (http://goo.gl/nwx5a7)
  • Plan for the Next Check-in Webinar – The next event in the Challenge series with be a check-in Webinar in early February 2018 . Watch for confirmation of the date!
  • Need More Information – Go online to see the briefing document, slide deck and other resources (http://www.hl7.org.nz)
  • Have Questions – Need more information or have questions you want answered, email us at admin@hl7.org.nz
  • Encourage Others to Participate – Go online and register as a participant (http://www.hl7.org.nz)
  • Save the date for the Challenge Event – University of Auckland, March 17, 2018

Want to take part on a fun challenge to create cool apps that directly impact patient care?
Interested to learn how to use the new HL7® Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) standard that is taking the world of healthcare information exchange by storm?
This challenge runs from December 2017 to March 2018 and ends in a full day, hands-on event with submitted solutions judged by health sector leaders. Prizes will be awarded for the top three submissions!
If you are an application architect, usability designer, developer or clinician working in the Health and Disability Sector or a student with an active interest in digital healthcare, then this event is for you!

Background

The Board of HL7 New Zealand (HL7NZ), in collaboration with The University of Auckland, is organising “Developers on FHIR” as a fun challenge to create new tools and apps that can directly impact patient care using the new HL7® Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) standard that is taking the world of healthcare information exchange by storm.
The proposed “Developers on FHIR” challenge will run from December 2017 to March 2018, culminating in a full day, hands-on face-to face event, hosted by The University of Auckland on Saturday March 17th, 2018, and is being generously supported by Microsoft.

Event Details

Participants will work in teams to develop a client application that utilises a FHIR based-API to tackle a current and important issue directly relating to patient care, the support of clinical care or person-managed health and wellness.
This Challenge will end with a demonstration of the solutions produced to be judged by health sector leaders. We propose to award prizes for the top three submissions! 

Who Should Participate

If you are an application architect, usability designer, developer or clinician working in the Health and Disability Sector or a student with an active interest in digital healthcare, then this event is for you!
Please complete our online registration form to register your interest in participation in the Developers on FHIR Challenge.

More Information 

Need more information or have questions you want answered, email us at admin@hl7.org.nz.

AGM Monday 6th November 2017, Auckland

The 2017 Annual General Meeting was held at the offices of Sysmex NZ, 386 Manukau Road, Auckland  on Monday 6th November at 4 pm. All previous Board Members were re-elected along with two new Members – David Moorhouse (Pegasus Health) and John Carter (Healthlink). At the first meeting of the new Board, held directly afterwards, the following officers were unanimously re-elected: Peter Jordan (Chairman), Peter Sergent (Vice Chairman), Edwin Ng (Treasurer), Linda McKay (Secretary). 

Minutes