I did quite a few things today, among which was delivering a lecture on behalf of HL7 Singapore (as the Vice-Chair and Lead of the Education Sub-Committee) to undergraduates from the School of Computing at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
The topic presented was Interoperability in Healthcare IT – Introduction to Health Level 7, where I covered (among other sub-topics), the role and growing importance of Health Informatics as well as the complexity of Interoperability and how Health IT Standards can help bridge the gaps.
While the lecture went pretty smooth, there were some ‘hiccups’.
Firstly, due to unforeseen traffic, (I know it’s not an excuse but it is what it is) I was late for one minute – which is not only a first for me for lectures but also a big no-no in general (never keep students waiting).
In addition, the students wanted to learn more about health informatics in general (while I tried to cover as much as possible, the time allocated was too restricting) as opposed to just Standards and Interoperability with an emphasis on HL7.
Now to be honest, delivering a lecture that effectively introduces Health Informatics is much easier since I do not have to focus on “trying to recruit students to join HL7 Singapore” and I can say this with confidence since I recently delivered an introduction lecture on Healthcare Informatics to another university in Singapore – Nanyang Technology University (NTU) in my personal capacity so the contrast is fresh on my mind.
In the end, the lecture went pretty well (majority of the students stay till the end) as I had at least 10 students staying back to ask questions about HL7 as well as the Healthcare Informatics industry in general.
So all in all, it was a good day (well, mostly).
(And to answer to “frequently asked question” – no, I do not get paid for doing this, its giving back to the industry I truly care about).
Till my next presentation… at HIMSS Asia Pacific 2012 !
BinaryHealthCare (BNHC) 