Health Interoperability Symposium

At the moment I am wearing a couple of hats and they all seem to be needed at the same time. #lotsofhats

I am lucky to be involved with the organisation of Health Interoperability Symposium 2019 to be held in Cardiff, Wales. The symposium stems from an idea I had where the same conversation keeps on being had with different groups coalescing around specific technologies. Specifically, Clinicians on FHIR and OpenEHR days (although I am sure there more than a few Snomed shindigs too). These events are usually great, but I wondered about getting all these voices in one place. And then stripping away the technology to discuss the underlying clinical need.

Therefore, I hatched a plan and gathered some lovely people from the Wales Institute for Digital Information (WIDI) and more recently Bevan Commission, Digital Health Ecosystem Wales and Apperta Foundation. I have collaborated to a greater or lesser extent with these organisations for some time and it was refreshing to get feedback that they thought the debate on interoperability was an important one to be heard. I have discussed the definition of interoperability, and the facets of semantic, process and technical at length (and will do many more times) but it still hits me time and time again that the subtleties of the subject remain elusive.

So the plan for Interop’19 is to have that discussion. Hear from people working at the coal face on the challenges they have experienced and try to describe the themes and importance for NHS organisations in 2019.

The response so far has been fantastic with just under a month to go – if you can make it and contribute it would be even better.

Free registration for Health Interoperability Symposium 2019 is open at the Interop’19 website where you can find our list of speakers.