MANDALUYONG, Philippines – The Standards and Interoperability Lab – Asia (SIL-Asia) presented its research poster entitled, Establishing a Regional Interoperability Lab as a Tool for Better Digital Health Implementations during the ’17th National Health Research Forum for Action (NHRFA): Accelerating Universal Health Care through Health Policy and Systems Research’ on 19-20 September 2018 at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel. The forum was organized by the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD).

The research poster centered on the establishment of SIL-Asia as an interoperability lab in the region to support the achievement of universal health coverage. To promote health standards and interoperability in Asia, SIL-Asia offers four core services to countries:

1. Training: Countries can go to SIL-Asia for training and workshops on standards and interoperability. The lab is actively engaging with the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE), Health Level Seven International-Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource (HL7-FHIR), and Blockchain for Healthcare experts to become a center of excellence in various health standards and technologies.
2. Teaming: Countries can start building their in-country interoperability lab by partnering with SIL-Asia. With a regional perspective, the lab provides technical and capacity-building support in setting-up a country’s interoperability lab.
3. Tooling: Countries can use the tools developed by SIL-Asia for their digital health implementations. The lab is in the works of developing artifacts, such as technology benchmarking frameworks, interoperability toolkit, implementation guide, etc to help countries in their digital health implementations.
4. Testing: Countries can also go to SIL-Asia to test and certify their healthcare systems for interoperability purposes. The lab can assist in conducting interoperability tests and providing certifications.

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 People’s Republic of China Poverty Reduction and Regional Cooperation Fund (PRC 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).