Doug Ward is the General Manager for Mohawk’s mHealth & eHealth Development and Innovation Centre (MEDIC). He’ll be moderating “If FHIR is so easy, then why is it so hard?” on October 13 at FHIR North 2021.
For me it has both good and bad connotations. Being fairly new to the health space I have been quite shocked at how fractured it is, technically speaking. For us to connect everything that should already be connected we will need several planets of API’s! On the other hand, FHIR provides an excellent approach to make these developments less burdensome, if we can just get more people to agree to work on the same page.
FHIR has always been relevant. But it is more so now because both patients and providers are increasingly demanding connectivity. People- patients in the system- are tired of not having their health information on hand, in one place. And people are increasingly tech-savvy, so they know that this is not a technology issue – it is an industry issue. FHIR can help facilitate those of us who are trying to build these connections.
Well I’m biased – that would be my own session where I am chairing a panel to discuss “If FHIR is so easy, why is it so hard?”. It goes back to my first point – from what I’ve seen of FHIR it really seems to be easy. So why are we not more connected?
Enjoy, and absorb. We have an excellent line-up of very experienced and knowledgeable people sharing their experiences and knowledge.