Workshop Information
The interoperability workshop is a forum where the foundations of digital health will be discussed in detail. The workshop will convene the top health stakeholders in Nepal to discuss how the country will be able to maximize the benefits of an interoperable digital health infrastructure. We will also revisit Nepal’s eHealth strategy and discuss how interoperability can further strengthen the eHealth strategy.
Rationale
The current state of fragmentation in health information systems entails that health data and information lose their potential to be transformed into useful information and knowledge for:
- Healthcare providers (for clinical decisions)
- Decision-makers (for evidence-based health policy)
- Patients (for personal health care)
This scenario happens when mechanisms are not in place to allow health information exchange. To enable interoperability, a country needs to agree on what standards to use for health information exchange.
Standards define the set of requirements (data structure, file format, protocol, procedures, processes, systems, etc) that must be met and agreed upon by all organizations within a health ecosystem to deliver quality health service.
This helps facilitate the continuity of patient-centric care, wherein patients should be able to receive data-driven and information-based treatment from their healthcare providers at any place and at any time.
In this workshop, we will review the current state of Nepal’s digital health strategy. We will then translate its existing gaps and assets into a clear landscape or roadmap towards digital health interoperability in support of the national health agenda. The design of the digital health landscape will be based on critical foundations that will set the right environment for national digital health interoperability.
Objectives
- Raise awareness and inform about interoperability of various electronic health information systems in Nepal and concept of interoperability laboratories.
- Discuss essentials for setting up an interoperability laboratory in Nepal.
- Inform about the continued technical collaboration among Asian countries in matters related to interoperability of health information systems.
Day 2 Topics
- Testing
- Standards and Interoperability Lab
- Standards and Interoperability Foundations
