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The end of 2008 nears, so allow me to report on two videos I made in 2008 but for which I haven't found the time yet to write a blogpost. The first video is about the use of HL7 in Switzerland, and the second one is about the annual HL7 Conference organized by HL7 Netherlands.

Switzerland

HL7 Switzerland was founded in 2000, with a focus on HL7 v2 messages (mainly ADT and Lab results). HL7 version 2 is used by almost all hospitals. In terms of the creation of a nationwide EHR Switzerland has to deal with the fact that it has 26 cantons (states), each of which is autonomous to a large degree. Each canton has its own laws when it comes to healthcare and the use of IT in healthcare. The national Swiss government is working on a national e-health strategy.

Tony Schaller, consultant with medshare GmbH and chair of the Swiss CDA Working group, sees a change in focus of HL7 Switzerland: HL7 v3 has come within focus of HL7 Switzerland, and their are some pilot projects that have implemented CDA. The new Swiss HL7 v3 CDA implementation guide (created by HL7 Switzerland, in cooperation with lots of Swiss organizations and software vendors) covers all documents (about 10 different types) needed to support the "hip replacement" clinical pathway. This implementation guide (available in four different languages) covers all of the requirements of the national e-health initiative. CDA promises to be "the" HL7 standard for Swiss healthcare.

Ronald Griessen, software architect with MCS Parametrix, observes that his employer, Parametrix - the biggest medical information system vendor in Switzerland has been using a RIM based architecture (RIMBAA for over four years. Their application has to be very flexible and adaptable, and four years ago they were looking for a generic model, and decided to use the HL7 RIM model as a generic architectural model. Their current application has a core model which is strongly influenced by the RIM. Ronald sees a benefit of the HL7 RIM above and beyond the peripherical application integration layer: inside of an application, as an architectural model.

The video (in English) can be viewed here:

Update (2009-04-02): see Die e-health Strategie in der Schweiz (in German) for a high level description of the Swiss nationwide EHR project.

The Netherlands

In december of 2008 HL7 Netherlands held its annual conference with over 125 attendees. Additional chairs had to be brought into the room to facilitate all attendees. As usual this one-day conference contained a mixture of v2 and v3, the relationship between HL7 and AORTA (the Dutch national healthcare IT infrastructure).

Some of the highlights were:

• Adri Burggraaff, of the IT department of the Slotervaart Ziekenhuis in Amsterdam, held a passonate talk about the requirement for all Dutch applications to migrate to HL7 version 2.4. As of June 3009 there is a legal requirement to send the 'national person identifier' (BSN) in HL7 v2 messages - something that's simply not possible
• Alexander Henket, consultant with E-Novation, observes that CDA in the Dutch conetext is something that will be on the increase, it will be compared to messages however, given the long history of HL7 messages in the Netherlands.
• Ewout Kramer, architect with Furore, held a presentations about the clinical statement model and templates. He compared the design of templates for clinical statements to 'software design patterns' as used in the development of software.

The full video (in Dutch!) can be viewed here:

2009

All the best for 2009!

-Rene

PermaLink to this page: http://www.ringholm.de/column/2008_hl7_switzerland_netherlands.htm

Index of columns:

• Adding openness to a closed world (Feb 09, 2010)
• How to lower the hurdle for HL7 v3 implementers (Jan 21, 2010)
• HL7 v3 deployment statistics (Dec 17, 2009)
• There's Trouble in Paradigm (Sep 25, 2009)
• Internationalization of HL7 (Sep 24, 2009)
• HL7 UK signs deal with Ringholm to deliver HL7 v2/v3 training courses in London (Sep 17, 2009)
• The use of HL7 in South Africa (Aug 20, 2009)
• The Next Web Conference in Amsterdam (Apr 17, 2009)
• The HL7 UK AGM and RIMBAA (Apr 16, 2009)
• The HL7 Wiki reaches 2000 pages (Mar 02, 2009)
• The HL7 roadmap for CDA R3 and the CCD (Jan 17, 2009)
• HL7 Affiliates Meeting in Orlando (Jan 11, 2009)
• Swiss and Dutch HL7 News (Dec 31, 2008)
• Devices and Prizes (Nov 22, 2008)
• HL7 in Norway: a situation report (Sep 02, 2008)
• Russian whitepaper (Jul 09, 2008)
• The HL7 Interoperability Conference - IHIC 2008 (May 30, 2008)
• HL7 creates a RIM Based Application Architecture (RIMBAA) group (May 18, 2008)
• Notes from the HL7 WGM in Phoenix (May 08, 2008)
• Germany embraces CDA eReferral document specification (May 02, 2008)
• HL7 v3 RIM based applications: an unintended side effect (Jan 19, 2008)
• Collaborative Tools (Jun 21, 2007)
• HL7 ist Pflicht in der deutschen Telematikinfrastruktur (German, Mar 16, 2007)
• HL7 based Tree inventory system (Jan 30, 2007)
• The link between HL7 and Open Source Software (Jan 06, 2007)
• Workflow Bribery (Sep 15, 2006)
• Timezones in HL7 (Jan 23, 2004)
• Controlled vocabularies: "@*%!!!" ? (Sep 01, 2003)
• Trusting the other Party (Nov 01, 2002)

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Ringholm GmbH is a group of European experts in the field of messaging standards and systems integration in healthcare IT. We provide the industry's most advanced training, mentoring and advice in integration standards and technologies.
See http://www.ringholm.com or call +49 700 RINGHOLM (+49 700 74644656) for additional information.