Electronic Health Records, Semantic Interoperability and Politics

Sebastian is now a Senior Developer with Ocean Informatics in the field of Knowledge Management and open Electronic Health Records. Before that, he was a Research Fellow at Central Queensland University after being a Postdoctoral Research Fellow for Health Informatics at Central Queensland University since 2004. He has a strong interest in electronic Health Records and in cooperation with Ocean Informatics, he has developed the openEHR Archetype Finder (http://www.dualitysystems.com.au/archetypefinder). In 2005, Sebastian was co-convenor of a series of workshops on archetype development for clinicians in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. He has also contributed to the development of a prototype User Interface Generator for the openEHR-initiative based on archetypes. He was lead researcher for the Australian Skill Needs Analysis of Health Informatics Professionals which lead to the development of a Health Informatics Educational Framework to provide guidance with regard to ‘good’ Health Informatics education while acknowledging the diversity of different roles in Health Informatics and the diversity of ways that lead to Health Informatics and the diversity of education within the Health Informatics discipline. He was also responsible for the research-part of a pilot study for the adoption of a simulated integrated health care information system for educational purposes. As part of his academic role he also supervises several PhD students in the field of Electronic Health Records and works together with researchers in Germany to foster the design, development and introduction of shared electronic patient records and make patient data available for multiple purposes (e.g. patient care, administrative purposes, and research). Before migrating to Australia, Sebastian conducted his PhD research at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, in the field of Health Information Systems which he completed in 2004. In 2001, Sebastian received a degree in Medical Informatics (Dipl.-Inform. Med., graduate program) from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. From 2001 until 2004, while carrying out his PhD research, he was employed by the Department of Medical Informatics of the Heidelberg University Medical Centre in Germany as a scientific employee. Sebastian worked in several projects in Health Informatics, for example as project manager for a nationwide electronic health record and integrated therapy planning system for paediatric oncology in Germany. Sebastian also worked on an ongoing Germany-wide project, developing and introducing a web-based teaching and case-based-learning system for medical education (CAMPUS, http://campus.fh-heilbronn.de). This system is closely integrated into the new Curriculum Medicinale of the University of Heidelberg, Germany, as well as other German and European universities. Further contributions to the field of health Informatics include the remodelling of legacy systems in health care, as well as the adequate representation of clinical knowledge for routine, research and education and the integration of application systems in hospital information systems using standards like HL7. Sebastian co-supervised diploma and study theses of the graduate program Medical Informatics, University of Heidelberg, was member of the educational committee of the graduate program Medical Informatics and the post-graduate program Information Management in Medicine. Sebastian was Managing Editor of the Yearbook of Medical Informatics of the International Medical Informatics Association, and managed the clinical knowledge server of the Heidelberg University Medical Centre. He is reviewer for several international papers and conferences.

Electronic Health Records, Semantic Interoperability and Politics

Evelyn JS Hovenga, Sebastian Garde

Abstract

An opinion paper exploring links between sustainable health systems, electronic health records, semantic interoperability, standards and national e-health strategies. It provides a rationale for why there needs to be a paradigm shift in thinking and explains the need for adopting a set of technical standards and establishing a supporting national infrastructure. It is argued that only then can Governments expect to be able to successfully implement health reform to meet their future vision and achieve a sustainable health system.

Keywords

Electronic Health Records; Standards; Interoperability; Politics; Computer Models; Terminology

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

--- eJHI - electronic Journal of Health Informatics - ISSN 1446-4381 ---

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