APB Minutes, 14 February 2025
Attendees:
Rachel Dunscombe, CEO openEHR and co-chair
John Powderly, Life Sciences Affiliate and co-chair
Abigail Bouvier, openEHR
Jordi Piera Jimenez, Catsalut
Adolfo Muñoz, Health Institute Carlos III
Pirkko Kortengas
Mikael Nystrom
Dr Osama
General
- JP reviewed the minutes from last month’s APB and noted that there is growing interest in a patient-centric record initiative in the U.S.
- RD spoke about the current challenges in the international standards landscape, particularly the impact of U.S. government policies on research funding and the funding for standards like ICD-10 and HL7.
- The group welcomed Adolfo Muñez, from Spain’s Health Institute Carlos III.
- RD shared plans to attend HIMSS International and Vitalis.
Discourse
AB shared insights on the discourse platform, highlighting low engagement levels and suggesting improvements such as adding meeting notes and action items. AB to invite Marcus Baw to the next meeting, when he can demonstrate the platform’s features - including use of Kanban boards - to enhance user experience and engagement.
Collaborations with other standards bodies
- RD discussed ongoing collaborations with HL7 and SNOMED, with plans for events focused on conformance testing.
- A joint event between openEHR and HL7 is planned for June in Amsterdam. Owing to limited space, there will be an announcement inviting people to register their interest. Costs for the event will be kept to a minimum, and the community will be debriefed at Dev Days afterwards.
- Other upcoming activities include initiatives and events in other countries that are adopting OpenEHR, including Ireland and Greece.
- RD and MN are currently working with Snomed and forming working groups.
openEHR Fellowship program
AB provided an update on the openEHR Fellowship program. Currently, 17 candidates have been shortlisted from a pool of over 70 applications, with plans for a structured launch in April. The program will be organized into three streams - Clinical Modelling, Clinical Leadership, and a ‘General’ category, overseen by Heather Leslie, Sam Heard and RD respectively. They are also looking to recruit senior fellows to take on supportive roles, with applications open until the end of the month.
New membership fee structure
RD covered the proposed new membership fee structure, aimed at offering options for membership payments for entities operating in a single country/geography by allowing members to pay a local fee, which would be split between openEHR International and the affiliate. Concerns were raised about the complexity of this model for certain subgroups, however RD confirmed that proposed changes aimed to provide more flexibility, and would be optional. NL is currently looking at how these fees would work in their geography.
Updates on ongoing Affiliate activity:
- Updates on healthcare initiatives in Sweden were shared.
- AM discussed the increasing interest in the openEHR standard in Spain and the need to establish an affiliate to support its development. He added that several of Spain’s autonomous communities are currently developing systems using openEHR.
- JP discussed his collaboration with Deloitte to promote openEHR in the Life Sciences sector and shared insights from his engagement with clinical trial software companies. It was noted that Deloitte Spain is also about to join openEHR. JP shared that he is learning more tools, and continues to promote openEHR within his professional network.
- MN shared that Sweden’s healthcare regions are in various stages of changing their insurance systems, which has slowed down activities. He highlighted the continuation of working meetings and the development of implementation guides and announced an upcoming Nordic collaboration meeting in March, inviting participation from interested parties.
- PK shared insights from an upcoming report by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, which recognizes openEHR as the credible primary model for data storage. This development suggests a significant move towards formalizing openEHR’s use at the national level.
Actions
- AB to add the notes from monthly APB to the discourse platform, and invite Marcus to provide a demo at next month’s meeting.
- RD to coordinate with Graham Grieve (HL7) to provide a debrief at the dev days following the event in Amsterdam.
- JP to present on value and access for patients at Deloitte’s industry working group in March, incorporating openEHR themes.
Next meeting
- Group to discuss the need for a cohesive website strategy for openEHR Affiliates.
- Plans for the next openEHR International Conference: EHRCON 25.
- RD to share insights from HIMSS International.