Las Vegas, Nevada., March 7 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The spirit of health and well-being is core to the founding principles of the Olympic Games and heralds the tenets of sustainable social development within each host and participating country. With the ambitious goal of integrating advanced digital health information sharing into health services provided before, during, and after the Games, the Olympic Healthcare Interoperability (OHI) Initiative & OHI Foundation have been formed to aggressively pursue this vision.
OHI, a digital health industry initiative with charter sponsorship from not-for-profit organizations
HIMSS and
SNOMED International, was created to advance the seamless exchange and use of health information globally through the Olympic Games. Starting with the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo, OHI’s goal is to “showcase the possible” and “implement the real”, through the communication of digital health information, for the benefit of the 1,000’s of athletes, trainers and staff, volunteers and attendees. With each edition of the Games, a digital health legacy will be crafted to establish a comprehensive, world-wide infrastructure supportive of appropriate access to relevant clinical information...anywhere, at any time.
Utilizing the latest innovations in digital health, OHI will connect pre-Games, person-specific healthcare information with information generated at the Games by Olympic and Host City healthcare service providers, which will flow back around the world with each individual once the Games conclude. OHI’s initial scope will include patient identity matching and access to international patient summaries with capacity to include the significant facets of a patient’s digital health record over time. All with the needed security, privacy and consent framework that will ensure appropriate access to all information.
Consider the case of a Jamaican athlete collapsing on the track, showing symptoms of cardiac stress. Medical personnel at the stadium use an electronic medical record (EMR) system to query the athlete’s electronic records from Jamaica, and discover a number of allergies, current medications, and medical conditions to inform a treatment plan. The athlete, requiring a surgical procedure and transferred to the host city’s tertiary hospital, is followed by the necessary diagnostic and treatment information via OHI interoperability. Post surgery, the updated medical record is posted to the athlete’s Jamaican EMR system for follow-up medical treatment at home.
As a way to build an Olympic digital health ecosystem that includes all stakeholders willing to specify, prototype and deploy digital health technology, the OHI Foundation has been created as a not-for-profit, charitable organization. The Foundation itself has no restriction on membership, and welcomes the participation and support of the global digital health community, namely vendors, healthcare providers, industry and standards organizations.
Recognized charter supporters, HIMSS and SNOMED International, lend their commitment to the pursuit of quality and safety improvements through health information technology and standards alike. Hal Wolfe, HIMSS CEO, states that “HIMSS is proud to sponsor the OHI Initiative as a representative of the digital health industry globally. OHI supports an ecosystem at the Olympic Games that is built on the same standards, products and infrastructures that are being implemented around the world in order to deliver better health through information and technology… our industry is dedicated to the realization of that vision.” Don Sweete, CEO, SNOMED International, echoes that sentiment. “At the core of care delivery is the principle that clinicians can, beyond a shadow of a doubt, rely on available, accessible and unambiguous clinical information at any point of service. Demonstrating this critical relationship at work through OHI and in support of the healthcare program offered at each Olympic Games, we see a forward-looking example made possible by the interoperability of health information.”
Michael Nusbaum, OHI’s Executive Lead, has been a driving force in realizing the OHI vision. “Launching OHI through this year’s HIMSS18 Interoperability Showcase speaks to the promise of global healthcare interoperability delivered through the lens of the Olympic Games, and for the benefit of participants, national teams, and host countries.”
Interested parties can learn more about this initiative at a presentation and drinks reception Tuesday March 6, 4:30pm - 5:30pm at the HIMSS Interoperability Showcase Theatre, and at an educational session Wednesday March 7th, 1:00pm - 2:00pm in Murano 3301. Organizations and individuals interested in becoming an OHI Foundation partner are invited to visit the OHI kiosk at the Interoperability Showcase.
About OHI:OHI, the Olympic Healthcare Interoperability Initiative, began early in 2017 to advance the seamless exchange and use of health information globally, leveraging the 2-year cadence of the Olympic Games and established international standards. Utilizing the latest innovations in digital health, OHI will connect pre-Games person-specific healthcare information with information generated at Games time by Olympic and Host City healthcare service providers: from athletes to staff/officials to volunteers to spectators.
The OHI Foundation is a not-for-profit, charitable organization based in the U.S. The Foundation provides the facilitation and management services required to progress its vision of advancing the use of digital health technology in conjunction with the Olympic Games to impact the health of individuals around the world.
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