Canadian FHIR Baseline Profile Workstream Kickoff Call - 10-11am EST Friday February 22nd

Lloyd and Jean,

Both great posts, thank you very much. These are two of several key decision points that we will field in our initial workstream call(s), as they are essential to the group forming a common understanding of / agreement on the method by which these profiles are developed and maintained. I will visibly attach the comments you've made in your respective posts to the associated decision points, so that they are top-of-mind during the discussions.

Thank you again!

I agree that would be a good idea.

Also, I think we're going to need to set an expectation of tighter conformance than seems to be the consensus from the initial call. If we want to be able to integrate with Apple and have SMART App and CDS Hook developers produce or port their content to work in the Canadian environment, we're going to have to have a base level of consistency across the country. That doesn't mean that all provincial interfaces will need to be identical, but setting minimal expectations around the drug codes in a prescription, the codes for allergies and conditions, etc. is going to be essential. Any jurisdiction or system that can't at least play ball at that level isn't going to be terribly useful from a FHIR ecosystem perspective.

Michael and others,

I would like to suggest that, re: the governance and maintenance, that we actually produce, ballot, and publish this as part of the standard HL7 International Implementation Guides, similar to what US-Core and AU-Core have done. This would get us greater visibility than if we published it in Canada alone and I also see no reason why this would not be something registered with the HL7 FHIR Registry. As well, by balloting it at HL7 International, I would hope/expect that we would get the visibility to the US vendors as well.

Jean Duteau

Hi all!

Thank you for the great turnout during last week’s kickoff call for the Canadian Baseline Profiles Workstream. There is clearly a lot of interest, and also much to do on the horizon!

Working toward planning the regular stream meetings, please complete this Doodle poll by selecting the timeslot(s) which work for you (you can select all that apply). To clarify, when it says ‘every other ___’, it means the meetings will occur in the alternate weeks to the scheduled Solution Architecture workstream meetings.

doodle.com/poll/wmd597ar3d8eewi3

PLEASE try to have this completed by EOD Friday March 1st, so we can begin scheduling the regular meetings as soon as possible!

The notes from the meeting are as follows:

Review - Proposed scope of the initiative

1. Not looking to create a ‘standard’; rather, looking to create ‘profiles’ for people to use; doesn’t have firm governance or financial incentives attached
2. Why do this? Not a major initiative out there to align this to. BUT there is still interest and value in doing this work; important to get these baseline profiles developed, as there are tons of projects and implementers starting from scratch
3. NOT forcing people to use it; to be marketed as a ‘suggestion’; should be considered Baseline / A Common Practice
4. Model: Wherever there is an opportunity for common practice, leverage that first rather than starting from scratch; “if you don’t know where to start, start with THESE profiles … with some confidence that you will also be giving yourself a better shot at interoperability
5. A ‘piece of the puzzle’ for vendors / products to access the entire Canadian market; having consistent profiles really helps achieve this
6. A step toward interoperability across the ecosystem

Discussion - Opportunities to align with existing efforts in this space (i.e. Infoway's ACCESS Health)

1. Need a clear need or directive for these initiatives
2. Attila proposed the need for a major project / 1st implementer that will drive the need for the baseline profiles, and that Infoway’s ACCESS Gateway could be such a driver. However, the actual profiles implemented will be constrained to the use cases supported by the Infoway ACCESS Gateway. Suggested using FHIR R4 as the underlying standard.

Discussion - Principles / methodology for profile development (i.e. what to leverage as 'baselines for the baselines’)

1. Turns out that lots of people have advised to be wary of relying chiefly on the Argonaut profiles
2. Group thinking is to use the US Core profiles as a ‘source’, and adapt when necessary if we can’t align
3. Finnie asked about governance and maintenance. Gavin suggested that be a work item and that likely HL7 Canada could be used.
4. Russ reminded the group that if there is an expectation vendors support this then we need to be aligned as much as possible with the US vendors’ support for FHIR profiles.
5. There are many ongoing integration / implementation projects across the country
6. Future ACTION ITEM: Identify all of these projects, ensure they are on simplifier.net, and start socializing these activities through this workstream (presentations, etc.); maybe then determine if the project(s) are fit to be considered as the ‘baseline’ profile sets for that case nationally

Next Steps - decide the immediate items for actioning going forward and meeting frequencies

ACTION ITEM: Michael to Make a doodle poll for meeting time preferences
ACTION ITEM: Next meeting focus: nailing down decision points on approach to profile development, which resources to start with, & establish milestones

Can we have it starting at 9am or 11am EST? 7am PST (10am EST) is not the most convenient time for BC.

Hi all!

For those who have expressed interest in being contributors to the Canadian FHIR Baseline Profiles initiative (discussed during the last couple of Community-wide calls), we will be doing a kick-off call for the associated work stream from 10-11am EST this Friday February 22nd. I unfortunately do not have the ability to provide the standard Zoom meeting / calendar details yet but will have that sorted in advance of the meeting timeslot (or will provide an alternative online meeting space). In the meantime please put a hold in your calendars if you are able to join!

The draft agenda consists of the following:

1. Review - Proposed scope of the initiative
2. Discussion - Opportunities to align with existing efforts in this space (i.e. Infoway's ACCESS Health)
3. Discussion - Principles / methodology for profile development (i.e. what to leverage as 'baselines for the baselines')
4. Next Steps - decide the immediate items for actioning going forward and meeting frequencies

Please comment in the thread if there are any questions. Thank you!