VIRTUAL – The Standards and Interoperability Lab – Asia (SIL-Asia) presented a virtual exhibit at the marketplace session of the 7th Asia eHealth Information Network (AeHIN) General Meeting (GM), which was launched on January 15, 2021. In this virtual booth, SIL-Asia presented its journey as a regional health interoperability laboratory. 

The AeHIN GM is an annual gathering of government, development partners, non-government organizations to discuss the latest trends with digital health governance, architecture, program management, standards, and interoperability.

Specifically, the 7th AeHIN GM’s marketplace aimed to feature the activities being implemented by relevant digital health groups in Asia amid the pandemic. In this session, SIL-Asia presented a five-minute video summarizing SIL-Asia’s origins, background, goals, and functions. 

Since SIL-Asia’s inception three years ago, the lab has already provided support to over a dozen countries across the Asia Pacific. The support includes technical assistance, capacity development, workshops, and peer-to-peer knowledge exchange. 

During the last day of the 7th AeHIN GM, SIL-Asia also expressed its full support to AeHIN’s Regional Call to Action for Digital Health in Pandemics. SIL-Asia also shared its experience in supporting the Philippine COVID-19 response in the context of integrating various information systems. 

AeHIN Regional Call to Action for Digital Health in Pandemics (Image Source: https://www.asiaehealthinformationnetwork.org/7gm/call-to-action/)

SIL-Asia’s virtual booth at the 7th AeHIN GM Marketplace can still be accessed here.

The Standards and Interoperability Lab – Asia is a regional health interoperability laboratory powered by the Asia eHealth Information Network (AeHIN) and supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) with sponsorship from the Republic of Korea e-Asia and Knowledge Partnership Fund.

The concept for the Standards and Interoperability Lab – Asia was first conceived at the Regional Interoperability Workshop organized by AeHIN in Manila last August 2015 at the sidelines of the Global Health Research Forum. The regional lab was designed to serve as a template of labs in each country that will later form into the Community of Interoperability Labs (COIL).