HL7NZ Developer on FHIR Challenge 2018
March 17th, 2018 – Submission Showcase
Background
The Board of HL7 New Zealand (HL7NZ), in collaboration with The University of Auckland and supported by Microsoft, organised “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.
The “Developers on FHIR” challenge ran 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 17, 2018.
The challenge to participants was to create a solution, using HL7® FHIR® based-APIs, that exhibits creativity in the development of a client-facing application that has high utility to one of more of the stakeholders that are involved in adverse event data collection, analysis and reporting, including physicians, patients, consumers, analysts, government agencies, and others.
Attendees came from a variety of backgrounds, technical development, business analysis, clinical, academic staff, students and worked in teams. Four teams submitted solutions to the judges:
- Ad Rec Awarded first prize
- FHIR-holics Awarded second prize
- Medfriend Awarded third prize
- Falls Extinguisher Awarded an honourable mention
Solutions Showcase
An outline of the solutions submitted is showcased below:
Team Ad Rec
| Team Name | Ad Rec |
| Team Contact | Sarita Pais (pais.sarita@gmail.com) |
| Team Members | Sally BritnellFeng ZhaoJun Han |
| Two Paragraph Summary of the Submission | Team “Ad Rec” chose to address the problem of streamlining online reporting adverse events to government organisations (such as the Ministry of Health) by providing interoperability using HL7 standards via a FHIR server. This project aligns the with the National Health Strategy which calls for “working smarter” and using technology and big data to improve the patient outcomes. A prototype android APP (Ad Rec) was developed using Visual Studio 2017 / C# using model-view-ViewModel- Xamarin design. A test case (Medsafe / CARM reporting of pharmaceutical or medical device adverse events) was implemented with information transmitted and received real-time via the FHIR server. Both treating clinician or consumer can report and edit by sending data to the server. However, the consumer’s General Practitioner must validate and update the data via the FHIR server before automatic submission to the agency collecting data. This approach allows engagement from and partnership with consumers and provides a safety net (GP validation) to ensure accurate data is recorded. We hope that this design will increase the accuracy and prevalence of adverse event reporting in New Zealand. |
| Powerpoint | https://goo.gl/QwrEtv |
| Link to Solution | NA |
Team FHIR-holics
| Team Name | FHIR-holics |
| Team Contact | Chandan Datta (chandan.datta@auckland.ac.nz) |
| Team Members | Dr Jutta van den BoomDr Chandan DattaDr Sumedh Kanade |
| Two Paragraph Summary of the Submission | The team chose to solve the issue of Adverse Event Reporting, namely the reporting of adverse reactions to medications and related substances, such as immunisations, is profoundly underreported to CARM (Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring). Only a small percentage of documented events in electronic medical records in primary care are reported to CARM. This is due to firstly an online reporting form provided by CARM which is cumbersome to find and to fill out A, and secondly there is lack of interoperability between primary care, secondary/tertiary care, community, paramedics and pharmacies for sharing of information about these events, placing the patient at an increased risk of an avoidable reaction. The team demonstrated the pre-population of a national medication allergy/intolerance/adverse reaction reporting form by reading data that comes in the FHIR format and then submitting data as FHIR again. Pre-populating the form saves clinicians time in filling out this form, in the hopes of increasing national medication adverse reaction reporting rates from the current 3% to at least 50% over a 2 year period. Using the FHIR format will also increase interoperability between different stakeholders and lead to an improved outcome for patients, as information about their adverse reactions is more easily accessible. |
| Powerpoint | https://goo.gl/RrK4Z2 |
| Link to Solution | NA |
Team Medfriend
| Team Name | Medfriend |
| Team Contact | Saswata Ray (0224749854); raysaswata@gmail.com |
| Team Members | Khalid Ali, Manoj Alwis, Saswata Ray |
| Two Paragraph Summary of the Submission | We picked up reporting of spontaneous event as the problem for adverse event reporting. As spontaneous reporting is a global issue and highlighted majorly for underreporting and poor quality of reports. We have developed an app as a proposal to solve the issue. It’s a simple app with four mandatory reporting criteria with other optional fields for a spontaneous case based on the FHIR platform while using interoperability. We see a huge potential in it, aspiring that its advantages may lead to risk minimisation and signal detection in future for the country. |
| Powerpoint | https://goo.gl/wWi3UW |
| Link to Solution | NA |
Team Falls Extinguisher
| Team Name | Falls Extinguisher |
| Team Contact | John Carter (john.carter@healthlink.net)Michael Hosking (michael.hosking@orionhealth.com) |
| Team Members | John Carter, Michael Hosking, Sam Paritt, Aditi Sherekar, Amanda Wee |
| Two Paragraph Summary of the Submission | Falls are one of the most prevalent and expensive kinds of injury, and have complex causes. Care-related factors including medication effects, aftereffects of hospitalisation and others can increase the likelihood of a fall. Instead of focusing on reporting adverse events such as falls, the Falls Extinguisher focuses on prevention by identifying high fall risk patients and assisting a care team with mitigation and prevention strategies.Our app provides a tool for providers, patients, and other caregivers to identify falls risks and work to prevent falls from happening in the first place. Falls Extinguisher allows a caseworker to query a repository, using customisable rules, and identify patients at high risk of falls. Alternatively, the application allows for direct patient enrolment. Once high risk patients are identified, the application provides patients and authorised caregivers (healthcare providers and family/support members) with an interface to connect, make further assessments, create falls prevention plans, and recommend other interventions. |
| Powerpoint | https://goo.gl/iEY8Jk |
| Link to Solution | NA |