IHE Canada Liaison Election Announcement

It's time for something different...

My name is Derek Ritz. Please accept my nomination for the position of IHE Canada Liaison.
I need to be upfront with IHE community members who might vote for me -- please make no mistake: my intention is to be a change-agent. I firmly believe IHE has an important role to play in Canada's ongoing digital health adoption... but it will require us to work in new ways. The status quo is not, in my view, going to lead us to success.

I have, I believe, the experience and expertise to do this job. I've got technical chops (P.Eng., CPHIMS-CA) and academic credentials (MSc Health Informatics, University of Edinburgh and Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh) and a bucket-load of national and international experience on broad-scale digital health projects. I have digital health standards expertise (delegate of Canada to ISO/TC215, IHE technical committee co-chair, IHE International board member, FHIR.org founding member)... but I also have dirty-boots implementation experience that gives me first-person perspectives regarding what standards are for and how they support ecosystem-wide interoperability.

If elected, I will leverage all of my expertise and experience and reputation and connections to help re-shape the digital health standards landscape in Canada and re-frame IHE's position within that new landscape.

• We need to embrace the work of the FHIR community; simpler is more implementable. This means extending IHE's existing portfolio of 22 FHIR profiles.
• FHIR needs to be "hardened"; we need to move beyond simple view-only pilots and start to build out real infrastructure that does important data-sharing. This means we need to architect ecosystem-wide infrastructure that expresses key workflows in terms of FHIR profiles. These new profiles need to interoperate alongside legacy workflows that have already been implemented.
• It is as important to have evidence-based digital health as it is to have evidence-based healthcare. We need to leverage existing conformance-testing capabilities (e.g. Mohawk's MEDIC lab) and grow/extend these capabilities across the country to support local implementations. There should be 7x24x365 virtual-Connectathon capabilities in the hands of every MOH, every software developer, and every implementer. IHE has mature testing tools that can help support this.
• This can't be an academic or ivory-tower exercise. IHE Canada needs to re-connect to ITAC Health. The vendor community's role in our national digital health journey is fundamentally important... and we know from experience what happens when we do not meaningfully engage with this community. IHE needs to more effectively engage with vendors both upstream (in profile development) and downstream (at the Connectathons).
• Infoway needs to leverage its convening role with the jurisdictions; we need strong advocacy that will be market-making for interoperable digital health products. Basically -- if we want ecosystem-wide interoperability (and the jurisdictions keep saying that they do!) then we need to ensure there is a vibrant market for standards-conformant products and, conversely, no market for non-conformant products. We need to innovate like crazy at one end of the API and be strictly conformant at the other end. IHE profiles give us a way to operationalize a market-making strategy.

As a community, we have important work to do together and, in my view, the IHE Canada Liaison role is an impactful one that can be leveraged to help lead this work. I would be honoured to be elected to fill this role and provide that leadership.

Derek Ritz, P.Eng., CPHIMS-CA
ecGroup Inc.

Please accept my nomination for the position of IHE Canada Liaison. Below is a brief bio that outlines my IHE and IHE Canada experience.


Michael H. Nusbaum, BASc, MHSA, FHIMSS

I am honored to submit my name for nomination for the position IHE Canada Liaison.

Most of you know that I have been an active volunteer and participant with IHE since its inception in 1999, serving continuously as a member of the IHE leadership team in positions including:

• Co-Chair ITI Planning
• Co-Chair Global Deployment Coordination Committee (GDC)
• Member Conformity Assessment Steering Committee (CaSC)
• (former) Co-Chair Cross-Domain Strategic Planning Workgroup
• (former) President of IHE Canada

I served as President of IHE Canada during the years when IHE Canada was hosted by ITAC Health. During my term, I was instrumental in bringing IHE Canada into the Canadian standards environment as part of the Infoway Standards Collaborative, where I served for a short period as IHE Head of Delegation.

During Lynne Zucker’s term as IHE Canada President, I often provided support at her request in the form of preparation of materials, and representing Lynne at a number of international IHE meetings.

I have been a member of the IHE International Board since its inception, in roles such as Director-at-Large and Domain Co-Chair Emeritus. Throughout my Board service, I was able to make a number of contributions in areas such as strategic planning, conformity assessment, and international SDO liaison.

Currently, I am privileged to have been appointed as IHE International’s Liaison Officer to ISO/TC215 and the Joint Initiative Council (JIC). In addition, in fulfilment of IHE’s obligations to the JIC, I have agreed to Chair the JIC for a 2-year period commencing February 1, 2018.

Those who know me can attest to my long-time dedication and commitment to IHE, and as a Board member, I would pledge to continue my efforts to strengthen the organization’s impact on digital health worldwide. In evaluating your choice for board candidate, please consider my experience:

• An active IHE member for 20 years, an active member of the IHE inaugural Board
• Two terms as ITI Planning co-Chair, during which I:
o Authored 2 IHE Profiles: PIX/v3, PDQ/v3
o Participated in the design and implementation of IHE International’s governance structure and process
o Helped create IHE’s cross-domain efforts, and actively participated on the Domain Coordination Committee.
• A frequent volunteer at the HIMSS North American Connectathon, including the management of “new directions”, and the planning/execution of Connectathon overview & tours
• An active volunteer on the HIMSS Interoperability Showcase leadership team, coordinating “front of the house” activities for over 10 years as a “public voice of IHE” in the Showcase theatre
• Brought the Interoperability Showcase to Canada’s annual e-Health Conference over 10 years ago

I am a strong advocate of aligning IHE specifications and processes to the world’s digital health policies and programs, and participated in the creation, authorship and publication of ISO/TR28380 (an ISO standard defining IHE Process and Profiles, facilitating IHE adoption in many countries around the globe). As IHE Canada Liaison, I would strive to work with all Canadian IHE stakeholders to increase IHE adoption in policy and practice, and strengthen Canadian input to IHE profile development, plus improve IHE education, sharing of experience, and implementation mentorship.

I currently serve as Vice-Chair of the HIMSS-NA Board beginning in July 2018. Currently, I represent the HIMSS-NA Board on the ConCert Advisory Committee (which is heavily invested in IHE conformity assessment).

And finally, in my day job, I am a management consultant who has been practising exclusively in the digital health industry in Canada and around the world… for over 35 years. I continue my IHE outreach in all my consulting assignments, many of which have resulted in the successful adoption of IHE profiles.

Canada Health Infoway is proud to support IHE and to be the home of IHE Canada.

Infoway is delighted to host an election for the IHE Canada Liaison position representing the IHE Canada Community internationally for the term of two years.

A document presenting the expectations for this role can be found here: infocentral.infoway-inforoute.ca/en/resources/docs/ihe/2611-ihe-canada-liaison-role-description

If you know of someone interested in:
 representing IHE Canada at IHE International;
 leading IHE Community engagement; and
 continuing to shape IHE profile work in Canada,

We invite you to nominate the next IHE Canada representative.

Requirements for nominations and voting

Nominating and voting for the IHE Canada liaison is open to all registered InfoCentral users.
A two-week nomination period begins July 23, 2018 through August 3, 2018.

Following nominations, the voting period is open from August 13 to August 24th on the IHE Community “About” tab .

For reference, the election timelines are as follows:
• Nominations: July 23, 2018 – August 3, 2018
• Preparation for ballot: August 6 – August 10, 2018
• Voting: August 13 – August 24, 2018
• IHE Canada Liaison Announcement: August 27, 2018

Eligible candidates may be nominated or may choose to self-nominate by posting a short description of their qualifications and aspirations for the IHE Canada position in this forum thread.

We are looking for knowledgeable, talented leaders that want to be involved in continuing to shape and promote the use of IHE profiles and related work in Canada.