ii4sm suggests Swiss healthcare semantic standards for nation-wide health information exchange

ii4sm - together with the University of Applied Sciences in Geneva and the University of Applied Sciences for Western Switzerland in Sierre - has a mandate from the Swiss Coordination Office for eHealth ("eHealth Suisse") to suggest nation-wide healthcare semantic standards empowering the health information exchange between stakeholders and establishing a new dimension of care practice and interoperability between regions in Switzerland.

The basic unit for the architecture of the medical system, the Electronic Health Record (EHR), contains the primary information needed for data exchange and integration. Within the context of the EHR it is key to be able to structure information produced by various diagnostic, therapeutic (pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic) and care-related information originating from health care professionals (general practitioners, specialists, nurses, physiotherapists, pharmacists, nutritionists, etc.)

In the context of this important and challenging task, "eHealth Suisse" has created a work package composed of ii4sm and the University of Applied Sciences in Geneva as well as the University of Applied Sciences for Western Switzerland in Sierre to define standards for semantic interoperability and architecture for the healthcare data exchange.

“We are very proud to support "eHealth Suisse" in the definition of semantic interoperability standards for Switzerland and are convinced that compliance to such standards by all involved healthcare stakeholders will generate massive healthcare costs savings and improve patient care and safety. The "eHealth Suisse" lead as coordination organ between Swiss regions and the Swiss Confederation is key for the success of this important healthcare project ”, says Dr. Dominik Aronsky, CTO at ii4sm.