FHIR is new. Healthcare data is old.
One of the key messages from my talk to business leaders at last week’s DevDays was the importance of building the right team for your FHIR project.
Who needs to be on the team?
- FHIR expertise
- Terminology expertise
- Clinical domain expertise
- Clinical workflow expertise
- Business domain expertise
- Legal, privacy and compliance expertise
I hesitated around included this slide.
After all, why should FHIR be different to any other healthcare data project? Surely you need the same expertise?
You do. But too often this message gets lost.
FHIR is often brought into an organization as new technology, as part of a new project with new data flows and requirements.
A side effect of all this newness is that new teams of devs, analysts, product and UX people are often brought in.
People without previous healthcare data experience.
Picture everything that can go wrong in this scenario and you won’t be far off the reality.
What do I mean by “on the team”?
I mean involved on a daily or weekly basis.
Clinical and terminology experts working alongside devs as they implement FHIR.
Legal and privacy experts weighing in as early architectural decisions are made.
Business domain experts making sure the wider product and organization expectations are understood and met.
If your organization’s definition of “on the team” is a demo day every 3 or 6 months, you might as well throw in the towel right now.
FHIR may be different, but it’s not that different.
Build the right team from the start and let them do their jobs.
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