Join Us for the January Da Vinci Project Community Roundtable on January 28, 2026, from 4 - 5:30 pm ET

As we enter 2026, the healthcare industry continues to move from planning to active implementation of standardized data exchange. Because the first phase of the CMS-0057-F Interoperability and Prior Authorization Final Rule took effect this month, the stakes for technical and operational alignment have never been higher. The HL7 Da Vinci Project Community Roundtable, taking place on January 28, 2026, from 4 – 5:30 pm. ET,  will provide insights and resources to navigate this pivotal year.

What You'll Learn

Our previous sessions focused on how using Da Vinci burden reduction and payer data exchange IGs are transforming healthcare and how best to meet prior authorization regulatory requirements. This January session builds on that foundation by outlining key use cases, IGs, and the progress made in standardized data exchange.

Gain valuable knowledge on operational enhancements and resources to optimize your planning for smoother HL7 FHIR implementations, including implementation guides referenced in federal regulations. Additionally, hear about Da Vinci's 2026 priorities and the HL7 Da Vinci Community Champions program. 

HL7 has announced the appointment of Professor Rachel Dunscombe as its new Chief Executive Officer effective January 19, marking the start of the organization’s next phase of growth in global health data interoperability. She succeeds Charles Jaffe, MD, PhD, who concludes nearly two decades of leadership at HL7.

Rachel brings extensive global experience in digital health, interoperability and standards-based transformation. Prior to joining HL7, she served as CEO of openEHR International, where she helped accelerate worldwide adoption of open health data standards and strengthened collaboration among governments, standards bodies and healthcare organizations.

Her career includes senior roles in healthcare delivery, national digital strategy, executive education and leadership in international standards communities. She has been recognized for her ability to unite diverse stakeholders and advance practical implementation of health data standards at scale.

 Overall Winner

The  Integrated Medical Management and Educational Gateway (IMMEG) Venous Management System (I-VMS) is an AI-enabled, standards-based platform that projects a vectorized atlas of the deep thoracic venous system onto routine chest radiographs. Using deep-learning landmark detection and HL7 FHIR®/DICOM interoperability, the system lets clinicians visualize the catheter trajectory and tip position in patient-specific anatomy, record planned versus actual placement, and build a reusable, longitudinal venous access record across organizations. The project was developed for Vanguard with support from Xzyos.ai. 

Clinical Problem and Context 

Central venous access is essential for chemotherapy, parenteral nutrition, dialysis and critical care, yet malposition and related complications—venous injury, thrombosis, infection, and device dysfunction—remain common and costly. Post-procedure assessment usually relies on plain chest X-rays, which do not directly visualize venous structures. As a result, clinicians infer anatomy indirectly; documentation is inconsistent; and comparing procedures over time is difficult. There is no consolidated, spatially normalized record of a patient’s venous history to guide future decisions.

Core Innovation

 I-VMS predicts anatomical landmarks (e.g., carina, first thoracic vertebra T1, lateral edge of the right rib) on a radiograph with a modified DenseNet121 model implemented in MONAI. These coordinates establish a patient-specific basis for an affine transformation that overlays a standardized, vector-based venous atlas onto the image. Clinicians can accept or adjust landmarks and annotate intended and actual entry and tip positions. Because annotations are stored in a normalized coordinate space, results are comparable across encounters and over time, enabling longitudinal analysis and population-level learning.

Reflections from the ADAPT Chief AI Officers on Innovation Panel Discussion, November 2025

After decades of working toward seamless health data interoperability, we find ourselves at another pivotal moment. The rapid adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare presents us with a familiar challenge wearing a new face: how do we ensure these powerful new tools work together transparently, accountably, and in the service of better health for people everywhere?

At a recent ADAPT conference panel, I had the opportunity to reflect on what our interoperability journey can teach us as we venture into standardizing intelligence, not just data. Here are some key insights from that conversation.

The Journey Continues

First, a grounding perspective: this is a journey, not a destination. Despite all the progress we've made in healthcare interoperability, too often, people still move faster and further than their health information. The ability for any digital tool—including AI—to help people make better health decisions is always limited by the scope of data in its purview and its capability to make sense of it.

Even the most powerful AI we can imagine must overcome the same boundaries we've always faced: technical, organizational, business, and jurisdictional barriers that prevent us from seeing the complete picture of health information relevant for individuals or populations.

However, HL7's decade-plus journey with Fast Health Interoperability Resources (FHIR® ) has taught us something crucial: open standards are a potent fuel for innovation. The vibrant, open, collaborative community around FHIR wasn't just a nice byproduct—it was the key force that created a well-tuned specification and enabled it to flourish in the marketplace.

Open standards level the playing field, reduce barriers to participation, and free organizations from proprietary formats. They unlock new connectivity, preserve data sovereignty, and most fundamentally, enable new digital freedoms. As we approach AI standardization, maintaining this commitment to openness isn't guaranteed, but it's the future we're fighting for.

 Winner of the Transformative Impact in Healthcare Award

What do you do when the people who taught you everything start to forget? My father is fighting Parkinson's and early dementia. My mother manages diabetes and congestive heart failure. My three siblings and I are a team — a family armed with love but disarmed by the chaos of a dozen medications, forgotten instructions, and missed questions. We were losing the battle against complexity, and that feeling is where this story truly begins.

 The seed for what would become Let's Talk Doc was planted six or seven years ago. My friend and partner, Diane Nguyen, and I saw the cracks in the system through our own eyes. I saw it in my parents' home, and she saw it as an immigrant facing the silent fear that a single misunderstood word on a form could alter her family's care. We tried to build something back then, a small solution born from our shared frustrations. But the technology wasn't ready. The idea was a spark, but we couldn't yet build the engine.  

Years passed. Then, earlier this year, Diane reached out. The world had changed. Technology had finally caught up to our ambition. "It's time," she said. "Let's try again."

 This is not a business venture for us. It’s a mission.

October Da Vinci Community Roundtable on October 22 from  4:00 – 5:30 p.m. ET

As healthcare organizations continue to operationalize CMS-0057 requirements, understanding how to align technology, workflows, and policy is more critical than ever. The HL7® Da Vinci Project Community Roundtable, taking place on October 22, 2025, from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. ET, will bring together industry leaders to share practical, actionable insights on how Da Vinci Implementation Guides (IGs) are transforming interoperability and reducing administrative burden across the healthcare ecosystem.

This month’s session, “Actionable Insights on Improving Burden Reduction, Payer Data Exchange, and Patient Cost Transparency,” will highlight the real-world value of HL7 FHIR®-based standards in improving efficiency, streamlining workflows, and driving measurable progress in value-based care.

What You'll Learn

The last HL7 Da Vinci Community Roundtable explored how regulatory, technical, and business drivers are shaping the future of prior authorization reform, with a focus on implementation strategies and interoperability alignment. That session underscored a key message: collaboration across payers, providers, and vendors is essential for scaling FHIR adoption.

The upcoming October Roundtable builds on that foundation connecting the dots between Burden Reduction, Payer Data Exchange (PDex), and Patient Cost Transparency (PCT) by highlighting Da Vinci’s pilots to show how these efforts can deliver tangible impact. First-hand accounts from Providence and Multicare as well as an update on recent testing work will be featured.    

Winners Recognized for Standards-Based AI Innovation, Collaboration and Real-World Impact

 Today, HL7 announced the winners of its first-annual HL7 AI Challenge, spotlighting innovators developing AI applications powered by open, standards-based frameworks in healthcare. The announcement was made during the morning session of HL7’s 39th Annual Plenary and Working Group Meeting (WGM) in Pittsburgh.

 Judges selected nine honorees from across multiple categories, recognizing innovation, collaboration and real-world impact.

 AI Challenge Overall Awardee Winners

• Robert Lario, PhD (Xzyos.ai) and Kevin Baskin, MD (Vanguard): AI-Conformable Venous Atlas: A Novel Solution for Clinical-Structural Correlation and Medical Device Surveillance
• Verto Health: VERTO Connect: A Solution to Healthcare's Unstructured Data Problem
• Quantek Systems, Inc: DynaMap AI – Active Inference-driven Clinical Workflow Engine

And six honorees were recognized for their contributions in the following specialized categories.

AI Challenge Category Winners

• Pioneer in Healthcare Innovation: (Ignyte Group and Appian) – Bring AI to Work(flow) – Provides robust process improvement throughout the patient lifecycle via AI agentic assistance
• Excellence in AI Transparency & Trust: (Trisotech) – Standardizing Clinical Autonomy: BPM+ Determinism and HL7 Integration for AI Agents
• Interoperability Leadership Award: (Whitefox Cloud Consulting) – Whitefox FHIR Converter
• Open Solution Award: (Omni Health Nexus) – The Intelligent Medical Assistant – Revolutionizing Information Management for Better Care
• Clinical Data Quality & Outcomes Award: (Aidbox Forms from Health Samurai)– AI Assistant for FHIR SDC and Analytics
• Transformative Impact in Healthcare Award: (Let’s Talk Doc) – AI Avatar Patient Communication Platform

Health IT Veteran Leaves Behind Legacy of Shared Data Standards and Interoperability Worldwide

 HL7 announced today that CEO Charles Jaffe, MD, PhD, will step down at the end of year, capping nearly 20 years of organizational leadership.

Under Dr. Jaffe, HL7 strengthened its role as a trusted convener for the global health data community; expanded adoption of foundational data standards, including HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®), Clinical Document Architecture (CDA® ), and the HL7 Version 2 messaging standard. He oversaw the integration of HL7 standards into federal regulations and championed worldwide implementation of FHIR to enable scalable, interoperable solutions across providers, payers and technology vendors.

 “On behalf of the board of directors, I want to thank Chuck for his outstanding leadership and commitment to HL7 members, partners and employees, as well as his tremendous success guiding the organization through nearly two decades of evolution and growth,” said Julia Skapik, MD, MPH, Chair of the HL7 Board of Directors. “Under his leadership, HL7 has continued to strengthen its role in advancing interoperability and delivering value to the health care community worldwide.”

Since joining the organization as its first CEO in 2007, Jaffe’s tenure has been marked by innovation, strategic expansion and enhanced international collaboration, positioning HL7 as the architect in shared standards development worldwide.