Following the political party caucuses, the presidential candidates will be long gone from Las Vegas when HIMSS16 spins up on February 29. But the debates will only be getting started. Which electronic health record is the best? Which middleware works or doesn’t work? Whose standards are going to be adopted? How should the government fix Meaningful Use? Will Peyton retire or not?
That brings us to our favorite health IT debate. We’ve heard at every HIMSS conference over the years that interoperability is hard – maybe even impossible. We’ve also been told that cultural issues as well as technical ones stand in the way of achieving true interoperability. At AEGIS, we got sick – no pun intended – and tired of that kind of talk. It’s easy to say something can’t be done and cite a litany of reasons why. We decided to do something about it – something that would move the needle and bring interoperability closer to reality – a reality where patient care and patient safety is improved, healthcare costs are reduced, and risks are better managed than they are today.
We decided to do something about it – something that would move the needle and bring interoperability closer to reality – a reality where patient care and patient safety is improved, healthcare costs are reduced, and risks are better managed than they are today.
We created the AEGIS Developers Integration Lab (DIL) back in 2011 to foster effective development of interoperable health IT systems through support from an ecosystem of integrated health information exchange gateways, a powerful rules engine, and a self-service model for always-available, automated testing. Then two years ago we began to design and develop a DIL initiative called the Touchstone Project which we released in October that focuses specifically on the HL7 FHIR standard. FHIR is quickly gaining momentum in the industry as the standard for health information exchange. Touchstone makes test-driven development (TDD) of FHIR-compliant systems feasible through the same self-service automation underpinning Touchstone in the DIL. Touchstone – indeed all software testing – is about Risk Management. We say: Play with FHIR all you want – let Touchstone protect you from getting burned.
Play with FHIR all you want – let Touchstone protect you from getting burned
We’ll be in Booth 12949 in Hall G (downstairs) at HIMSS16, directly in front of the Interoperability Showcase. What will we be up to?
- Monday evening, come to the opening reception and visit our booth. We’re conveniently situated close to one of the bars. Grab a drink and some food then come over and relax with us – by the FHIR!
- Tuesday and Wednesday we’ll have regular presentations on Touchstone, FHIR, and the DIL, but we’re leaving plenty of time for one-on-one and small group discussions about making health IT more interoperable and managing risk
- Watch for Tweets announcing other speaking engagements with our Health IT partners throughout the conference
Meet AEGIS Founder and interoperability guru Mario Hyland (@interopguy), FHIR expert extraordinaire Richard Ettema (@techknowman), and our own resident HIMSS-NCA Chapter President Barry Dickman (@BarryatAEGIS) and get yourself inserted into our conference-long Tweet-fest.
Safe travels – see you in Vegas!
