The new Hospital IT Working Group of the DCC brings together representatives of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) departments of the five University Hospitals, in order to promote the development of the Swiss-wide IT infrastructure and accelerate the harmonization process regarding the implementation and adoption of technical solutions within SPHN.
For the funding period 2017-2020, the five University Hospitals have received a contribution of CHF 3 million each to develop interoperable clinical data management systems (clinical data warehouses) in the context of the Swiss Personalized Health Network initiative. The collaboration agreements between SPHN/SAMS and the University Hospitals list detailed milestones to be fulfilled by the University Hospitals in order to reach the overarching goals of the SPHN initiative.
To deliver on these milestones, delegates from each hospital started to meet and exchange information regularly in 2018. Formerly known as the “Hospital IT Dialogue”, the team has stepped up in scope to become the newly named Hospital IT Working Group, operated by the DCC and chaired by Cornelia Kruschel Weber (University Hospital Zurich).
Connecting pieces of the puzzle
The Hospital IT WG will function at the crossroads between information and communication technology, data management and the BioMedIT/research environment. It will provide recommendations and guidelines regarding the implementation and adoption of technical solutions and standards, which are necessary for the harmonization and development of the Swiss-wide IT infrastructure.
Most members of this Hospital IT Working group are also involved in the DCC Clinical Data Semantic Interoperability Working Group. This connection and alignment will help the seamless integration of semantic standards, data formats and exchange formalisms, ultimately making clinical data interoperable and potentially available for research.