Friday, November 17 was finally the day: from all corners of the Netherlands as well as the world, techies, policy makers and healthcare professionals gathered in Arnhem for the openEHR conference. In the Safari Meeting Center of Burgers' Zoo, participants were welcomed by volunteers in orange hoodies and soon the opening keynotes began in a packed auditorium... If there is one thing that stood out this conference, it is that openEHR is alive and kicking.
CODE24 also attended, as a silver sponsor. What were our main takeaways of the day? We're happy to share it with you.
A growing awareness
As CODE24, we have been working with openEHR for years. It is the foundation of our EHR and our open platform for healthcare data. Yet in recent years, it still sometimes felt like being 'a voice crying in the wilderness'...
That the event was now not only well attended but even sold out was also a pleasant surprise for the organisation. Our architect Sebastian Iancu is a board member of openEHR NL and was one of the organisers of the conference.
Three inspiring tracks
The zoo theme was fully embraced by the organisation. The conference itself was called 'Exploring Data Availability in the Wild: Unleashing openEHR's Potential,' and the three tracks also had fun names:
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Policy & Impact: "Roaring Success Stories: openEHR in Action.
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Clinical & Modeling: 'From Zoo to Clinic: A Journey through Real-World Clinical Modeling.'
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Tech & Innovation: "Pioneering the Wild Frontier: Innovations in openEHR Healthcare Solutions.
From real-life stories from Spain, England, Sweden and of course the Netherlands, among others, to sessions on the connection between zibs, openEHR and FHIR and presentations on SMART on openEHR, FHIR mappings and the EY Connected Health Cloud - the format of these three tracks meant that there really was something for everyone.
Together we will get there
In several presentations, in keeping with the name of the conference, the potential of what we can achieve with openEHR took center stage. Where are we going, what do we need to consider? How do we get the most out of it?
From leveraging datasets for AI in healthcare to the need to define how to work locally, nationally and internationally - it became clear that what openEHR is based on is also what will take us forward: collaboration.
This event was a wonderful example of collaboration in action. Knowledge was freely shared, connections were made... We closed with the launch of Professor David Ingram's new book (Health Care in the Information Age), which is both available to order and free to download - a wonderful example of, as openEHR International CEO Rachel Dunscombe put it, "the power of democratising information and knowledge"!
