LAS VEGAS -- The PyeongChang Olympics may be in the rear-view mirror, but preparation for the 2020 summer games in Tokyo is already well under way.
That includes here at HIMSS18, where HIMSS and SNOMED International have officially launched the Olympic Healthcare Interoperability Initiative, which aims to "showcase the possible and implement the real" when it comes to the exchange of digital health data for thousands of athletes, trainers and other attendees at the Tokyo games and beyond.
Starting in 2020 – then and iteratively every two years after that, through at least the scheduled 2028 games in Los Angeles – OHI plans to build an interoperability infrastructure for the Olympics: connecting athletes' existing personal healthcare information with data generated at the games, then securely sharing it back with their providers around the world.
As part of the effort, HIMSS and SNOMED have also launched the OHI Foundation as a not-for-profit charitable group, and put out the call for participants – vendors, providers, standards organizations and more – worldwide.
[Also: The Olympics at HIMSS18: International interoperability a new team sport]
"HIMSS is proud to sponsor the OHI Initiative as a representative of the digital health industry globally," said HIMSS CEO Hal Wolf in a statement. "OHI supports an ecosystem at the Olympic Games that is built on the same standards, products and infrastructures that are being implemented around the world in order to deliver better health through information and technology… our industry is dedicated to the realization of that vision."
"Demonstrating this critical relationship at work through OHI and in support of the healthcare program offered at each Olympic Games, we see a forward-looking example made possible by the interoperability of health information," added Don Sweete, CEO of SNOMED International.
Learn more about OHI at a presentation and reception at 4:30 p.m. March 6 at the HIMSS Interoperability Showcase, and at the education session "OHI: Healthcare Interoperability at the Olympic Games," on March 7 in Venetian Murano 3301.
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Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com
