455 - Practical Steps to Healthcare Interoperability: Conversations with Sparked FHIR Experts

In this episode of Talking HealthTech, host Peter Birch speaks with guests Kate Ebrill ,?Sparked National Community Lead & Interoperability lead at CSIRO 's Australian e-Health Research Centre, and Danielle Bancroft , Chief Product and Technology Officer at Best Practice Software , about one of the most crucial aspects of modern healthcare—interoperability. The conversation highlights the importance of seamless information exchange in healthcare systems and how the Sparked spearheads this effort in Australia.

Understanding Interoperability in Healthcare

Interoperability refers to the ability of different healthcare systems to exchange and use information without additional effort from users. This seamless exchange is crucial for delivering efficient, high-quality patient care. However, achieving true interoperability in healthcare involves overcoming significant challenges, including integrating diverse systems, ensuring data standards, and maintaining data security. Interoperability is not just a technical requirement; it's about ensuring that healthcare information is in the right place at the right time for the right person.

A Practical, Incremental Approach for Improvement

Building a perfect system from scratch is impractical. Instead, the focus should be on making gradual, practical improvements. Rather than aiming for a flawless solution, the healthcare industry is encouraged to adopt incremental advancements in data exchange processes. Kate, a pivotal figure in Sparked, explains that this pragmatic approach ensures continued progress while accommodating the complexity and variability inherent in healthcare systems.

Community-Driven and Agile: The Sparked FHIR Accelerator Approach

Sparked is Australia’s first nationally coordinated effort to develop standards for healthcare interoperability. This adopts a community-driven, open, and agile methodology. It brings together stakeholders from government, industry, clinicians, and consumers to develop the foundational FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) specifications suited to Australia’s healthcare landscape.

The Role of Design Groups in Standard Development

Sparked's process involves establishing design groups to define and implement the necessary standards. These groups include a clinical design group with more than 400 participants focusing on identifying essential information for exchange and a technical design group responsible for implementing these requirements using the FHIR standard. This structured yet collaborative approach helps ensure the created standards are practical and effective.

Testing and Validation: Ensuring Robust Standards

Before being rolled out for implementation, the FHIR standards undergo rigorous testing, validation, and maturation. This step ensures that the standards are robust and can be effectively utilised by vendors, ultimately promoting widespread adoption and interoperability. Testing and validating standards are crucial steps; they ensure that what is released can indeed perform in real-world settings and support the needs of healthcare providers, highlighting the importance of thorough preparation.

Focusing on Key Value Use Cases

A significant advantage of developing FHIR standards through a community-driven approach is the focus on key value use cases. This method targets specific, high-impact areas like supporting bulk uploads and creating patient summaries, showcasing improved interoperability's practical benefits. By concentrating on practical use cases, this approach demonstrates tangible improvements in workflows and patient care, building trust and encouraging further adoption.

Importance of Collaborative Involvement

All stakeholders, including vendors, clinicians, policymakers, and patients, must actively engage in discussions to understand FHIR and its potential to improve workflows and roadmaps in the healthcare industry. If you’re not involved in the discussions, it isn’t easy to understand how to make FHIR work for your systems. It is crucial to have everyone at the table.

Engaging Clinicians and Consumers

For interoperability to truly benefit healthcare systems, it must be consumer-focused and clinician-friendly. This means designing standards that meet end-users needs, making data accessible and usable in clinical workflows, and ensuring the information is secure and aligned with government policies. It's about making the data usable and accessible, not just available.

Implementing the AU Core FHIR Implementation Guide

The AU Core FHIR Implementation Guide, developed by Sparked, is an essential tool designed to facilitate the exchange of information for various use cases within Australia. It promotes the reusability of core data elements, ensuring consistent and reliable data exchange across the healthcare system. It ensures that the wheel isn't reinvented for each use case as a foundational tool that promotes consistency and efficiency.

Aligning with the Digital Health Strategy

Sparked is funded for two years and aligns with Australia's broader Digital Health Strategy, providing a robust framework and ensuring its efforts align with national healthcare goals. The industry's investment in FHIR is bolstered by Sparked's coordinated and funded effort, giving confidence that it is aligned with broader strategies and has long-term support.

Exploring Patient Summaries and Chronic Disease Management

Patient summaries and chronic disease management are crucial in enhancing patient care by efficiently consolidating and sharing essential patient information across different care settings. These areas are prime examples of how interoperability can yield significant, immediate benefits, highlighting the practical advantages of prioritising these use cases.

Involving All Vendors for Cost-Efficient Connection

Danielle underscores the importance of including all vendors across various care sectors in interoperability discussions. Standardised, cost-efficient connections can create a more cohesive and efficient healthcare system, benefiting providers and patients. It’s essential to involve all sectors to achieve true interoperability, emphasising the need for comprehensive involvement and collaboration.

Forging a Path for Better Healthcare Delivery

Interoperability is poised to revolutionise healthcare by ensuring seamless data exchange and more cohesive patient care. Sparked exemplifies a practical, community-driven approach to achieving this goal in Australia. Sparked is forging a path towards better healthcare delivery and improved patient outcomes by focusing on practical use cases, engaging all stakeholders, and leveraging innovations like AI.

Interoperability isn't an end goal; it's an ongoing process of improvement and adaptation driven by collaboration and a shared vision for better healthcare. We stand on the brink of a new era in healthcare, one where digital innovation and interoperability pave the way for a healthier future.

To learn more about Sparked and to join the community,?click?here.

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Best Practice Software is a leader in the development and support of quality medical software products for Australasian medical practice.

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