Health Level Seven International Appoints Three Executives to Support Organization’s New Divisions

The Organization Welcomes Daniel Vreeman, D.P.T., Viet Nguyen, M.D., and Diego Kaminker

HL7 today announced the appointment of three executives: Daniel Vreeman, DPT as the Chief Standards Development Officer; Viet Nguyen, MD, as the Chief Standards Implementation Officer; and Diego Kaminker, as the Deputy Chief Standards Implementation Officer. All three roles are newly created positions that will support HL7’s restructuring into two divisions: Standards Development and Standards Implementation.

HL7 has undertaken an 18 month-long re-envisioning project to assess the best path forward to better serve both the HL7 community and the healthcare information technology industry. The formation of the Standards Development and Standards Implementation Divisions are a result of this initiative. Importantly, the divisions will seamlessly collaborate to address the needs of the industry and increase the impact of HL7 standards. The HL7 Standards Development Division will focus on the development and maintenance of HL7 specifications while the Standards Implementation Division will concentrate on helping communities discover, access and understand the specifications as well as test their implementations.

“We are excited to have such accomplished and globally recognized individuals join the HL7 executive leadership team,” said Charles Jaffe, MD, PhD, CEO of HL7 International. “Each of them brings their unique skills and experience with HL7. We expect that the impact of their leadership will be felt in the near term and in the years to come.”

Chief Standards Development Officer

Daniel Vreeman, DPT, a physical therapist, biomedical informatician, and expert in health data standards, will lead the HL7 Standards Development Division. Dr. Vreeman has developed internationally adopted health data standards, implemented them in multi-institutional health IT systems, evaluated their use, and provided strategic advice to interoperability initiatives of numerous U.S. federal agencies and national eHealth efforts in other countries. He has served as Principal Investigator on 30 externally funded projects totaling $23 million. Most recently, Dr. Vreeman was the Senior Clinical Data Standards Lead at RTI since 2019 and was previously the Director of LOINC and Health Data Standards at Regenstrief Institute from 2006-2019. In addition, he has been an active HL7 member since 2006 and serves as the Technical Director for the HL7 Gravity FHIR Accelerator, the Chair for the Health Standards Collaborative and is a founding member of the HL7 FHIR Foundation.

Dr. Vreeman believes in the power of the HL7 community to produce specifications that become public goods whose value is shared and increases as more people contribute and use them. “I am passionate about creating a world where open data standards enable people to experience optimal health” said Dr. Vreeman. "I am truly delighted to join HL7 and its community in developing standards that empower global health data interoperability.”

Chief Standards Implementation Officer

Viet Nguyen, MD, is an internist, pediatrician and clinical informaticist who has held leadership roles such as Chief Medical Officer and Chief Medical Information Officer at Leidos Corporation, Lockheed-Martin and Systems Made Simple. He will lead the Standards Implementation Division alongside Diego Kaminker. Dr. Nguyen served as the Chief Pediatric Resident at University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s and completed an informatics fellowship at the University of Utah. Most recently, he founded Stratametrics, LLC, an informatics consulting firm at which he works with numerous commercial and federal clients. Dr. Nguyen has been active in HL7 for approximately 20 years and has nearly two decades of experience in health information technology focused on interoperability standards and product development. He has been a consultant to government and commercial organizations in developing interoperable workflows and technologies. He serves as the Technical Director for the HL7 Da Vinci FHIR Accelerator. In addition, Dr. Nguyen is a nationally recognized FHIR educator and an HL7 Board Member.

“I am honored that HL7's Board of Directors has put its trust in this leadership team to be the stewards of this important phase of HL7's digital transformation,” said Dr. Nguyen. “I look forward to helping the division further HL7's mission to improve healthcare around the world by supporting the implementer community with education, best practices and tools to advance the adoption of HL7 standards.”

Deputy Chief Implementation Officer

Diego Kaminker is a globally recognized interoperability expert and implementer in the field of healthcare information technology. He is the Founder and Owner of Kern IT with specialties in integration, software development and project management. Kaminker has been a member of the HL7 community for twenty years and has served multiple terms as the Chair of HL7 Argentina as well as an Affiliate Director of the HL7 International Board of Directors. He has defined, implemented and maintained hundreds of HL7 interoperability projects throughout the course of his career. As a prominent HL7 educator, he has led hundreds of training courses and created the self-paced online HL7 Fundamentals Course, which has attracted over 6,000 students worldwide. He is also a founding member of HL7 Argentina and the HL7 FHIR Foundation and has participated in the Argentina National Digital Health Network and has served as a guest faculty member at Columbia University in the United States.

“I have always advocated for the implementers in HL7, as I am one as well. I want to help close the chasm between standards and how to implement them,” says Kaminker. He continues “I am thankful to the HL7 board for this opportunity and to work closely with Dr. Nguyen to launch new programs and contribute to the widespread adoption of HL7 standards worldwide.”

Meet the New Executives Webinar on Friday, December 17

HL7 will host a free webinar introducing its new executives on Friday, December 17 at noon Eastern Standard Time. This is an opportunity to hear how these executives plan to help HL7 grow into the next decade. More details about HL7’s new standards implementation division will be provided. Webinar participants will be encouraged to provide feedback and suggest ideas for ensuring the success of HL7’s newest venture. Interested parties can register for the webinar here: https://hl7-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEvd-mgqDgjHdMMcSMF0qO9Yddn-HpYz5dY.