FHIR for Business & Project Leaders

Are you heading up a project where FHIR plays a central role?

If you are, you need to know the decisions you’ll have to make and the mistakes you need to avoid making. The future success of your project depends on it. These posts were written for people just like you.

Most FHIR decisions are not technical. They need to be made by the business, not by technical architects or dev teams.

1. Should your Project use FHIR?
FHIR comes with a lot of overhead, but for the right project it’s the perfect solution. Make sure your project is “the right project.”
https://darrendevitt.com/should-your-project-use-fhir/

2. A Crash Course in FHIR for Business Leaders
Take 90 minutes out of your day and watch this Intro to FHIR video. It’s my “go to” video when I introduce business and product leaders to FHIR. It will help you understand what your architects are talking about and will enable you to ask some hard questions.
https://darrendevitt.com/a-crash-course-in-fhir-for-business-leaders/

3. The Business Case for FHIR
If you’re selling FHIR further up the ladder or looking to make the business case to yourself, this should get you started.
https://darrendevitt.com/the-business-of-fhir/

4. Building a team for your FHIR project
FHIR may be new but that doesn’t mean you don’t need all the expertise you needed on previous healthcare data projects.
https://darrendevitt.com/building-a-fhir-team/

5. FHIR is not a Database
The most common mistake business leaders make about FHIR is to look on it as “just another database.” This leads to unmet expectations, and in many cases deadlines that get pushed out by years. Don’t make this mistake.
https://darrendevitt.com/fhir-is-not-a-database/

6. FHIR‘s Hidden Difficulties
This is where you get to ask your solution and technical architects the “But what about…” questions. If they’re new to FHIR, chances are they missed some of these key problem areas. If they stay in the dark, you can kiss your production deadlines goodbye.
https://darrendevitt.com/fhirs-hidden-difficulties/

7. Questions for FHIR Project Leaders
Similar to be the above, but phrased slightly different. Ensure that you can check a box next to everything on this list, and that your legal, compliance and technical people are all in agreement.
https://darrendevitt.com/questions-for-fhir-project-leaders/

8. Questions to Ask FHIR Server Providers
Choosing a FHIR server provider is one of the earliest decisions you’ll have to make as well as one of the most important. Getting it wrong will be costly. Your technical team may be handling the POC, but make sure they’re testing the right things and asking the right questions. Ultimately, this needs to be your decision.
https://darrendevitt.com/questions-for-fhir-server-vendors/

9. The Pros and Cons of Managed FHIR Servers
Following on from the above, is a “hands off” managed FHIR server the best answer? It’s almost certainly the easiest, but will it stand up once you go to production?
https://darrendevitt.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-using-a-managed-fhir-server/

10. Terminology in FHIR
If you’re not thinking about terminology from Day 1, your teams WILL get it wrong. That’s close to guaranteed. And it’s a mistake that might not bite you until you start seeing real data in a live environment.
https://darrendevitt.com/terminology-in-fhir/

If you have questions about bringing FHIR into your organization or projects, reach out and and we’ll talk: fhir@darrendevitt.com.