Intro to Interoperability, FHIR-API-TEFCA, Plain & Simple

WHY IS THIS COURSE IMPORTANT?

The ability for Healthcare IT systems to communicate with one another in a meaningful way (interoperability) has been an issue for decades in healthcare. Initially, standards were designed to connect large Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems, most of which were designed to address the insurance and billing needs of patients and hospitals. These EMR systems have had limited success for providing patients and clinicians the integrated view of healthcare information they need to make accurate diagnoses and treatment decisions.

Until now... The birth of search engine technology, distributed web based systems and the diffusion of mobile healthcare devices into our everyday lives has made it possible for a much more mature, complete integration of not just our patient records but everything related to our healthcare needs. Ideally we, as patients and clinicians who treat us, would like to ask a healthcare question and have the various healthcare electronic systems "serve up" all the data and information related to that clinical question and eventually, through Artificial Intelligence (AI) suggest some diagnoses and treatments.

This is the promise of the new FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) Standard.

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN IN THIS COURSE?

In this course, you will learn:

• The Issue with our current method of connecting Healthcare IT systems

• The MPI (Master Patient Index) Issue

• The document based approach of current EMR systems

• What we really want and need

• The enabling technologies (Web, Search , Mobile devices)

• What is an API (Application Programming Interface)?

• FHIR and API

• How FHIR can make everything better.

This course includes:

• Video lectures

• Quiz to test your retention

• Significant number of resources to do a deeper dive into his topic.

WHO IS THE IDEAL STUDENT FOR THIS COURSE?

You will learn a lot from this course if you are

• Thinking about choosing healthcare as a career

• Looking to advance your career in healthcare

• Looking to expand your knowledge of healthcare to better perform your current job and better understand how it fits into the ecosystem of patient care and better serve those in need

• Curious about everything and want to learn more about healthcare just for the sake of expanding your knowledge base.

WHAT IS YOUR TEACHING STYLE?

My teaching style is a very pragmatic one. I assume you know nothing about this topic and start with the foundation and build from there. Some of these concepts could be challenging, so I sprinkle in as many examples as I can, both non healthcare and healthcare, to assure full understanding of the topic. This is why I have appended "Plain and Simple" to all my courses.

WHY ARE YOU QUALIFIED TO TEACH THIS COURSE?

I spent 35 years in the designing and launching of medical imaging products and services. My career evolved from leading engineering teams, to becoming VP Marketing and then to president of a Healthcare IT firm. It is also based on 15 years of university teaching.