For the sixth straight year, the Asia eHealth Information Network (AeHIN) together with the Ministry of Health in Sri Lanka and other partners are hosting its general meeting and conference on interoperable digital health for UHC. AeHIN was created by the World Health Organization to support developing countries in their journey towards harnessing information and communications technology for healthcare. Over three hundred participants from government, academe, and private sector have pre-registered to the GM and it is anticipated that much discussion will dwell on the non-technical aspects of digital health such as governance, architecture, program management and standards. AeHIN posits that a well governed and clearly architected national ehealth program stimulates cross-industry collaboration which will enable solutions to scale to the needs of the country.

The Standards and Interoperability Lab for Asia is an spinoff of AeHIN and was created with support from the Asian Development Bank to provide technical assistance to countries who wish to craft specifications for that will allow various stakeholders to exchange health data securely. Sprining forth from the University of the Philippines Manila, SILA has expanded its scope to the Asian region and is now in discussion with several countries to setup in-country interoperability labs. Among these countries are Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and Nepal. At the AeHIN GM, these countries will launch themselves as the Community of Interoperability Labs.

The AeHIN GM (October 7 to 9, 2018) is part of the Digital Health Week being organized by the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka and the Commonwealth Medical Association. More information at dhw2018.org/aehin