openEHR 'Explainathon'

Have you ever been momentarily stumped when asked to explain exactly what openEHR is? What it does? Why it matters? Conversations about the importance of open standards in healthcare are crucial, and getting the message across - in a way that can be easily understood by everyone, not just techies - can be pretty challenging. :thinking:

@Lars_Fuhrmann - a member of this year’s fellowship cohort - has had the brilliant idea of inviting members of the community to share their own version of ‘openEHR 101’ at EHRCON25 in Barcelona. Think of it as a ‘show-and-tell-meets-pitch-slam’, with participants given the chance to explain openEHR in just 5 minutes, keeping in mind the following: :eyes:

  • Maximum 1 slide per ‘pitch’ (slides are not obligatory, and a flip chart will be provided) :memo:
  • Props are encouraged - the more innovative, the better! :light_bulb:
  • Use whatever analogy works for you :sun_behind_cloud: :unlocked: :open_book:
  • Your presentation cannot exceed 5 minutes :hourglass_done:
  • Bonus points for avoiding the words: archetype, clinical modelling, semantic harmonisation, datatypes, mapping, terminology bindings
 :astonished_face:
  • The lucky winner will take home a coveted prize :trophy:

If you’re interested in taking part, email events@openehr.org or send me a DM on this platform before Friday 19 September. :e_mail:

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Wow. It is still ok to use the terms “blood pressure” and “Lego”! :slight_smile:

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I love this idea - an extended variation on the classic elevator pitch - what you can say during the ride between floors in a lift!! Look forward to watching the recordings! Thank you.

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@mikael really you can use ANY words, ANY props, ANY means you see fit
. we all :blue_heart: Lego. It would be great to get the community sharing their tools and tips
 :wink:

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Yes exactly @DavidIngram, I bet there are some great ‘pitches’ out there already that we could all benefit from! :blue_heart:

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Hi,
I am interested to join.

best regards,

Osama

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Thank you @canimani - I will register your interest and be in touch with more details.

Hi Abi!

Thank you so much for putting this in motion!
you can definitely count me in.

The background is that in my presentations i often spend quite a bit of time covering the “symptoms” of our current IT landscape and the “pathogenesis” of these issues and wanting to end by explaining a lot about the Archetypes and their potential uses.
This meant i usually did not have more than 1-2 slides and less than 5 minutes to explain openEHR and it’s multi-level approach. And I thought I can’t be the only one with that problem.

Some things crossed my mind, just as suggestions:

  • I think it would be great if we could be a bit flexible about the scope of the presentations so that we can align with what people think they are best at explaining. Maybe some want to cover what openEHR is as a whole, maybe some want to cover how Archetypes/Templates/Compositions work. Maybe some want to cover AQL or the Semantic versioning/archetype publishing process? Or how openEHR relates to other standards? openEHR’s Organisational structure? I think it would be great to have people show off whatever they are best at explaining, all of these things may need to be consisely explained to non-openEHR experts in some situations.

  • Maybe it makes sense to give participants the chance to say who the target audience for their pitch would be, whether that is how you would explain it to clinicians, to patients, insurers, political decision makers, EHR vendors or a bunch of 10-year olds etc. I think needs to be clear so that the EHRCON audience can farly judge whether the explanation would be well-suited for that target audience. (of course, toy props may work well with all of those :wink: )

  • So I’m not sure about whether we need a strict list of terms to avoid, if someone wants to do a “what are archetypes”-pitch it may make sense to call them by that name?

  • If we are going to record it maybe we need a second camera to show the presenter’s hands/props more closely, and probably a table to rest those props on.

    Here are some potentially useful things that i found laying around in my home. I won’t tell you which one’s I’ll use, but I will take all of them to barcelona. So anyone can feel free use them in their presentations.

I probably won’t take all the lego’s with me, let me know if you need special ones

I might be able to find duplo’s as well, those are a bit bigger and easier to see.
No need to tell me what you will need from these until the last minute, I will take them with me anyway, keep your secrets :wink:

also pinging @Sidharth_Ramesh @SevKohler and I’ll invite my fellow fellows..
I mean, Abi said there’s a prize!!

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@Lars_Fuhrmann thanks so much for this! You’re absolutely right and we will leave this to the community/presenters to choose how to present their pitches.

  • We are 100% flexible about what people choose to present - and to whom
  • No terms are banned, but innovation and novelty are encouraged
  • A table will be available for demonstration purposes
  • Anything goes!

We’re still hoping for more expresssions of interest, so if this idea appeals to anyone in the community then please get in touch. It’s a great opportunity for knowledge sharing. :brain:

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I literally bought into openEHR when I bumped into Tom in an elevator back in 2001 or 2002 at a conference in Berlin! Not sure all of those words were even invented by then :smiley:

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At an internal departmental meeting, I invited people to pick a clinical concept (yes blood pressure measurement was one of them!) and hold an A4 paper with the mindmap of Archetypes and then asked them to group in ways to represent some key documents like discharge summary, lab request, diabetic assessment etc. It was fun and a way to illustrate reusability :smiley:

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I know it ‘s a bit late, but I’d like to have a go at this! Would be fun!

Any time slot decided for when and where this would happen? Don’t want to miss out on other sessions.

Hello

I have only just discovered the challenge. For a high-level explanation of openEHR, I use three PPT slides:

  • Trends in medical documentation (from a booklet with notes for all patients to cloud-based shared medical records)
  • Trends in medical information systems (best-of-breed, best-of-suite, best-of-platform)
  • Trends in basic concepts (application-driven, data-driven, workflow-driven)

Conclusion: openEHR is the enabler of these trends, which allow for cross-organisational, standardised long-term storage of medical data.

Is that acceptable for the challenge?
It’s rather trivial, but if there aren’t enough registrations, I can participate.

Jean-Pierre

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If we don’t get enough participants we may have to choose people on the spot and have them draw the topic, Prop and target audience from three hats.

Explain ”AQL” using “a plush Penguin” to “a class of first year medical students”

:grinning_face:

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This sounds like fun. Charades X pictionary :rofl:

This sounds like fun, can we join virtually :sweat_smile:

Sidharth, the session is booked for lunchtime on Thursday 17th, so you won’t miss out on any of the other sessions.

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I’m not sure this will be possible @Eugene_Kolah but perhaps you can send us a recording?

So, to sum up


What: openEHR Explainathon/Pitchfest :loudspeaker:

Where: Sala Raval, CCCB Barcelona (EHRCON25)

When: 12:30-13:30 (lunchtime), Thursday 16 October 2025 (bring your lunch with you :fork_and_knife:)

Who: Moderated by @Lars_Fuhrmann, we’re looking forward to hearing ‘pitches’ from: @canimani, @mikael, @Sidharth_Ramesh, @Koray_Atalag, @SevKohler, @JPMesserli and anyone else who would like to share their ideas- @heather.leslie- a good opportunity to get the 'Lego’ bricks out?

Anything goes, but please try to remember:

  • Slides are not obligatory, but if you use them please try to keep explanations to a single slide :bar_chart:
  • Props are welcome - feel free to bring your plush penguins, Lego, jigsaw pieces - whatever works for you! :penguin:
  • Innovation will be rewarded :light_bulb:
  • And yes, there will be a prize :trophy:

See you in Barcelona :woman_dancing: :spain:

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Thanks Abi and to everyone volunteering!

I don’t want to discourage anyone else, but I am thinking that 6 participants is actually quite a good number for 1 hour time, as I think it would be great if we left a little bit of room inbetween to discuss/give feedback to make it a bit more interactive (+vote at the end?). It would be a bit of a shame to have to hurry this too much, especially if it is as fun as I hope.

I suspect that lunch sessions don’t always start exactly on time, so there will already effectively be <5 min between presentations for feedback/discussions/setup, which is not a lot.

While I did originally plan to participate myself i would also be happy to just be the moderator (first time, so please be nice everyone! :wink: ).

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