Program Showcases Individuals Making Significant Contributions to Advancing Implementation Guide Use
Initiatives such as the Da Vinci Project make strides toward interoperability as organizations adopt the vision and push it forward to reality
To achieve the progress the HL7 Da Vinci Project has made to date, it relies on the extraordinary efforts of individuals who consistently work to advance the organization’s goals. This might entail stepping forward to lead a work group of peers, spending extra hours editing and reviewing work in progress workflows, recruiting business partners to test early versions as early adopters, or scouring their organization to find the right subject matter expert for a particular business challenge or question, all to ensure that early HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) implementation guides work.
These team members exemplify the spirit and intent of our collaborative industry-first Da Vinci efforts, said Jocelyn Keegan, program manager for the Da Vinci Project. “The work of Da Vinci is, at its core, a human powered effort,” she noted. “It is imperative that we publicly acknowledge the contributions of the smart, dedicated thought leaders who are redefining how payers and providers collaborate.”
To recognize individuals who are taking a lead role in working to make the outputs of Da Vinci real, the project has named six leaders as the initial class of the Da Vinci Community Champion program for their contributions in 2020.
With the ascent of value-based care, interoperability is expected to evolve at an even faster pace to meet the business demands that new reimbursement incentives are producing.
"The people involved with the Da Vinci project play a pivotal, enabling role in advancing the data exchange infrastructure that is essential to making the healthcare system work better for all constituents," said Sagran Moodley, chair of the project's steering committee and Senior Vice President of Clinical Data Services & Technology for UnitedHealthcare's Clinical Services organization. "This passion comes from a community that is anchored to a common vision to share best practices and innovate and in an 'industry-first' manner.
"To transform healthcare delivery, we need to foster new, and attract diverse talent that can bring fresh, disruptive perspectives to take on a bold but essential interoperability agenda," Moodley added. "This initial class of the Da Vinci Community Champions embodies this culture of paying forward with unique traits – industry above self, a passion for making the healthcare system work better, growing others, and promoting change."
The 2020 Da Vinci Community Champions
Those selected as Champions include the following individuals:
- Anna Taylor, director of operations for population health, Multicare Connected Care
- David DeGandi, senior interoperability strategist, DTS CTO organization, Cambia Health Solutions
- Gini McGlothin, senior quality management analyst, Blue Cross Blue Shield Alabama
- Linda Michaelsen, director of interoperability standards, Optum
- Michael Gould, business lead for interoperability, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
- Patrick Murta, chief interoperability architect and fellow for enterprise architecture, Humana
The 2020 class of Da Vinci Champions have taken lead roles in implementing pilot projects using implementation guides. These innovators are beginning to use FHIR in production, solving real-life challenges facing healthcare organizations dealing with new business pressures arising from value-based care arrangements between providers and payers.
For example, Anna Taylor and David DeGandi’s efforts helped MultiCare Connected Care and Regence BlueShield implement FHIR use cases for Data Exchange for Quality Measures (DEQM): Medication and Reconciliation Post-Discharge (MRP) to improve efforts to coordinate records on medication reconciliation, improving care records for patients and automating the process so as to not require extra staff time or workflow changes.
Pioneering efforts from these champions are helping the Da Vinci Project accelerate the use of FHIR in support of value-based care to reach its goals of improving the healthcare delivery model, supporting efforts to meet regulatory mandates and better managing healthcare spending while improving healthcare outcomes.
Join the HL7 Da Vinci Community
To learn more and join the community, visit hl7.me/davincinews.
