The Standards and Interoperability Lab – Asia (SIL-Asia), with support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), provided capacity-building support to the Ministry of Health Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) on the use and adoption of Health Level Seven International – Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (HL7-FHIR).
On July 14-16, 2021, SIL-Asia conducted a three-day HL7-FHIR training with select clinicians and IT specialists of the Ministry of Health Lao PDR. The activity aimed to improve the capacity of the Ministry of Health and other related entities in implementing an interoperable digital health ecosystem.
Participants and trainers during SIL-Asia’s HL7-FHIR Training with MOH Lao PDR
Four months before the training (March 30-21, 2021), Lao PDR completed its first digital health convergence workshop. The workshop, supported by Asia eHealth Information Network (AeHIN), ADB, and World Health Organization (WHO), enabled MOH Lao PDR to identify steps to deploy and use digital health technologies in the country. One of the critical steps identified is adopting an international standard for facilitating health data exchange. The standard identified during the workshop is HL7-FHIR.
HL7-FHIR is considered the leading standard in healthcare today. Hospitals use HL7-FHIR in connecting various hospital-based information systems like patient management systems, laboratory information systems, and billing systems. Thus, HL7 FHIR is a critical tool to ensure the integration of various digital health solutions deployed/used in the country.
During the training, SIL-Asia facilitated a series of technical deep-dive sessions on HL7-FHIR, covering topics such as FHIR Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), developing FHIR profiles, and the process of setting up a HAPI-FHIR, a complete implementation of the HL7 FHIR standard for healthcare interoperability in Java. The training included sessions dedicated to digital health foundations, clinical workflow mapping, and international health profiles.
For more information, visit this page to browse SIL-Asia’s HL7-FHIR presentation slides in Laotian.
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).
