Rationale
In March 2021, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) just completed its first digital health convergence workshop. The event, supported by AeHIN, ADB and WHO lead to the development and identification of concrete plans on how digital health technologies can be deployed and used in the country. One of the key items identified is the need to adopt an international standard that can be used to facilitate health data exchange. The identified standard is the HL7 FHIR standard. The HL7 FHIR standard is a critical tool to ensure the integration of the various digital health solutions that are being deployed/used in the country.
Integration of these systems for them to work together is needed to ensure that timely and accurate data are available to the HMIS and to ensure that patient care whether in the primary care level or in more specialized levels can be maximized. The integration of these systems can be made possible if they are interoperable and adhere to standards.
The Asian Development Bank established the Standards and Interoperability Lab – Asia (SIL-Asia) to serve as a public regional good for digital health expertise. The lab has worked with countries in the Asia Pacific region through capacity development and technical support in the implementation and integration of digital health systems.
This concept note outlines how SIL-Asia could support the capacity development of the key digital health implementers in Lao PDR particularly on the use and adoption of the HL7 FHIR standard.
Learning Objectives
The goal of this work plan is to improve the capacity of the Ministry of Health and other related entities in implementing an interoperable digital health ecosystem. The following are the detailed objectives:
- Increase the technical knowledge of the Ministry of Health and other related entities on digital health, governance, architecture, standards and interoperability
- Implement a series of HL7-FHIR Standards webinar based on a starter toolkit to build the Country’s capacity in implementing the FHIR standard
Day 1 Topics
A, General Introduction
- Presentation of Enterprise Architecture
- Overview of Digital Health Foundations
- Standards and Interoperability
- International Health Profiles
B. HL7 FHIR Overview
