Stream: FHIR AFRICA
Topic: Africa FHIR Connectathon
Hamish MacDonald (Feb 06 2021 at 02:40):
Hello All, @Chris Seebregts and I followed through on @Grahame Grieve request at the last Africa FHIR call (December ) to explore a FHIR Connectathon in Africa. Chris and discussed and then Chris came up with this Draft outline. Posting it here for the community in Africa to join in, suggest additions, edits, etc.
Please do jump in and let's see if we can make this happen sooner than later - it takes a modicum of people to make a Connectathon work, so don't be shy!
@Olivier Karasira @Joanna Usifo @Pamela IZERE @Roheeni Bhana @Matthew Valentine @Ilya Beda @Kate Ebrill @Debi Willis @Dave deBronkart @Rien Wertheim @Peter Jordan FHIR-Lighter-Africa-COP-Meeting-DRAFT.docx
Ilya Beda (Feb 08 2021 at 06:10):
Hi @Hamish MacDonald
Thank you very much for bringing this topic up.
I am looking forward to joining the conversation.
Let's use some online tool instead of attaching documents to the threads. It will be much easy to comment and elaborate on the document.
As a simple solution, we can use google documents. Another option is to manage all documentation via confluence the same way it works for other connectathons. What do you think about it?
Hamish MacDonald (Feb 08 2021 at 07:25):
Sure, @Ilya Beda . I am sure that @Chris Seebregts would also agree that the more people involved the merrier - please do feel free to place this up on Confluence for community input and editing.
Oduola Olumide (Feb 12 2021 at 09:06):
Hamish MacDonald said:
Hello All, Chris Seebregts and I followed through on Grahame Grieve request at the last Africa FHIR call (December ) to explore a FHIR Connectathon in Africa. Chris and discussed and then Chris came up with this Draft outline. Posting it here for the community in Africa to join in, suggest additions, edits, etc.
Please do jump in and let's see if we can make this happen sooner than later - it takes a modicum of people to make a Connectathon work, so don't be shy!
Olivier Karasira Joanna Usifo Pamela IZERE Roheeni Bhana Matthew Valentine Ilya Beda Kate Ebrill Debi Willis Dave deBronkart Rien Wertheim Peter Jordan FHIR-Lighter-Africa-COP-Meeting-DRAFT.docx
@Hamish MacDonald I'm excited about this. My company and I are really interested in FHIR for Africa and we have been building a group of FHIR engineers locally. I will like to support in any way I can to make this happen.
Hamish MacDonald (Mar 02 2021 at 09:55):
Hi All in FHIR Africa,
Here are some notes that I found personally interesting from the call about 15 of us had yesterday. Thanks to @Grahame Grieve for leading it. First off, I could sense some building momentum compared to the first call in December, which is very encouraging.
- Thanks to @Daniel Futerman for your excellent insights and support regarding OpenHIE. Grahame may also be able to get some folk at WHO interested in supporting.
- @Chris Seebregts explained his COP-like draft for a potential Connectathon (see above link to the DRAFT document). Grahame may be able to get some HL7 resources for that, but it is not his area but he can ask.
- Grahame made an important point. "Whatever is done at a Connectathon must mesh with an end point people want to achieve". (Not just be a coding event).
- Something that we are doing at Sovereignty in terms of real world implementation in Rwanda for Maternity Health and Child Health delivered by Community Health Workers, with fully FHIR and SHOMED CT compliant workflows was confirmed as something that would fit the above definition of a useful practical application. @Emeka Chukwu Thx for your interest in this. Please don't hesitate to reach out to myself or @Olivier Karasira to discuss further.
- If others also have real world implementations that we could put into a Connectathon, please do add on this thread.
- The IPS (International Patient Summary) was agreed to be an excellent base to consider for an African extension.
- Grahame also recommended what CSIRO's Ontoserver could do to potentially help integrate into the Africa environment. @Kate Ebrill please do share any insights here!
Anyone else with further insights or useful notes from the call, please do drop them here. Connections are being made, and one can sense some wheels beginning to turn.
Carl Leitner (Apr 21 2021 at 13:34):
for specific use cases, the WHO Smart Vaccination Certificate <--> IPS workflows could be a good topic. there are some SDC workflows for HIV & Covid case reporting that could be interesting
Hamish MacDonald (Jun 17 2021 at 09:57):
Hi All, a good call with a few of us, moving Africa FHIR along further to some concrete outputs.
@Grahame Grieve is going to invite @Emeka Chukwu to co-host monthly Africa meetings with him, next one July 5, so that when Grahame cannot attend the call can still take place.
Grahame mentioned https://vci.org/ and the SMART Health Card Framework is picking up momentum https://vci.org/about#smart-health Originally developed to help record vaccines, it is expanding its scope to be about Verifiable Clinical Information. Ultimately likely HL7 will be the authority to manage the standards.
WHO is doing two lines of work, one around population health clinical guidelines around digitization, and vaccination certificates.
@Chris Seebregts Put forward that potentially there could be a FHIR Stream at the next Open Health Information Exchange event in Africa, scheduled at this stage for sometime in October (likely virtual). This could provide some good exposure to a wider audience at the event. Chris offered to enquire of the organizers about the possibility. @Daniel Futerman Please add any notes I may have missed here.
Such a stream would need concrete work on the ground involving FHIR. Topics put forward included PEPFAR countries for data integration and reporting frameworks in Community Health Worker modules for Maternity and Child Health.
There was also discussion on the possibility of regional events by Emeka.
(Please anyone present feel free to add in any other missed or relevant information).
Max Masnick (Jun 17 2021 at 20:55):
:wave: Hello from the team working on the SMART Health Card IG! We are active in the smart/health-cards stream if we can be of help.
Emeka Chukwu (Jun 18 2021 at 00:23):
Hi All, thanks @Hamish MacDonald for the succinct summary from the last call. Please let me further clarify that as you have highlighted, yes, a community-led technical (developer specific) FHIR Connectathon is scheduled for Q1-2022 in Nigeria. More information on this event will be shared as they are firmed up.
Grahame Grieve (Jun 19 2021 at 05:02):
@Emeka Chukwu is all set to run the Zoom meeting now
Emeka Chukwu (Jun 19 2021 at 05:13):
Thanks @Grahame Grieve . Ready and looking forward to the meeting on 5th July.
Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC
