I’m excited to finally share some details on the progress of the SANER project. A few weeks ago, I first heard about this project from my friend Keith Boone who is leading the SANER project while working at Audacious Inquiry. The project is an open source effort to create an HL7 FHIR API that shares real-time, de-identified data about important information like hospital bed capacity and equipment usage during times of crisis.
The obvious usage here is bed capacity which has been a key metric to understand flattening the curve and vent availability. It’s not hard to see how getting this information from each organization can help those dealing with the COVID-19 response be able to respond more effectively.
This image created by Audacious Inquiry illustrates how SANER will work:
As an HL7 FHIR project, it’s gone through the approval process faster than any previous HL7 project I’ve seen. You can see the HL7 FHIR Implementation Guide for the details. It will be tested at the virtual HL7 FHIR Connectathon in May. If you’re interested in this project and want to support the effort, you can register here. They’ve got an amazing group of organizations on board already, but it takes a village as they say.
One thing I like about this project is that you can see how it can be useful well beyond COVID-19. Understanding the healthcare resource availability is important in any public health emergency. So, I’m hopeful this project is successful and lives on far past COVID-19.
