Key points
- Danielle Taveres-Rixon is the technical lead of CSIRO’s Sparked FHIR Accelerator program. The program’s mission is to design implementable standards that define how healthcare data is stored and exchanged.
- Danielle heads up a community comprised of government, industry, clinicians, domain experts, technology vendors and peak bodies representing over 100 organisations.
- The Sparked community recently published the first release of the AU Core FHIR Implementation Guide. The guide helps people design health systems that speak the same language.
When health systems don’t speak the same language, exchanging medical information is tricky.
It’s not a problem that any one person can solve. That’s why our Australian e-Health Research Centre (AEHRC) has brought together a community of digital health experts.
The community, led by a powerhouse team including technical lead Danielle Taveres-Rixon, is the backbone of the Sparked FHIR Accelerator program. The program, a partnership with the Department of Health and Aged Care, the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) and HL7 Australia, has a mission ― to design implementable standards that define how healthcare data is stored and exchanged.
Refining data interoperability standards
To Danielle, having data interoperability standards is as important as having building standards in the construction industry.
"Having clear, agreed-upon guidelines for how something is built, or in this case, how health data is stored and exchanged, means that everyone is on the same page," Danielle says.
It’s something that Danielle has been passionate about for a long time.
"For me, it’s always been a no-brainer. Setting out those minimum requirements gives us a platform for stability and innovation," she says.
Prior to joining CSIRO, Danielle helped to define the place of FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) in Australia’s national strategy. But after ten years, she was ready for a change.
"I wanted to take the next steps and work with people who were actually trying to implement FHIR," she says.
A national standard for healthcare
According to Danielle, implementing a national standard for healthcare information exchange isn’t a new concept.
"Sparked is just the next evolution in making progress in digital health in Australia. With every evolution, we learn some lessons," she says.
Inspired by FHIR accelerators overseas and by the CSIRO Primary Care Data Quality project, the Sparked team set out to upend the typical standards development model.
"In the past, standards have come from either government or industry. With Sparked, we wanted to put everyone – government, industry, clinicians, domain experts, technology vendors and peak bodies – in the same room," Danielle says.
It was a bold move that required extensive coordination from organisers and commitment from all involved. Within just three months, it was clear to Danielle that the strategy was working.
"It was early on, at our second face-to-face meeting. We had over 100 people come together for two days," she says.
"There were no incentive programs or government legislation requiring them to attend ― just people wanting to commit their time and energy to this cause.
"This said to me that we were in the right space as a community."
Since then, the community has grown to include representatives from over 100 organisations, achieving major milestones along the way.
Last month, Sparked published the first release of the AU Core FHIR Implementation Guide.
"This is new ground. We’re publishing a standard that defines how to share information that has been developed with insight from clinicians and has been fully bought into by both industry and government," Danielle says.
The more the merrier
The release of the implementation guide is the result of over six thousand hours of effort by the Sparked community. That’s countless online meetings, in-person events Connectathons, and testing days.
As technical lead of Sparked, part of Danielle’s role is to foster this community and ensure there is governance in the space.
"Everything comes back to the community. We want to know what’s important to them, we want to hear their feedback as the standard is being developed, we want to know what issues they run into when they test the standard," she says.
Danielle says that it’s the people in the community who make Sparked so special.
"Everyone is respectful and supportive. There’s an understanding that the people in the room are coming from diverse perspectives and that we need to find a shared way forwards," she says.
She encourages anyone interested in getting involved to reach out to the Sparked team.
"It really is the more the merrier. We need all voices to be heard," Danielle says.
"Don’t be afraid to provide your voice. We are going to listen to what you have to say."
With strong communities and people like Danielle leading the way, it’s an exciting time to be involved in digital health in Australia.