Anis Fuad referencing the WHO SMART Guidelines Digital Adaptation Kits (DAKs) for HIV and Tuberculosis to illustrate how global recommendations can be translated into standardized, interoperable workflows at country level | Screenshot from HL7 Global Passport Series webinar
The Asia eHealth Information Network (AeHIN) participated in HL7 International’s Global Passport Series webinar, “Interoperability and Standards: Policy Innovation Hotspots Worldwide,” a global dialogue examining how recent shifts in health policy and financing are influencing digital health priorities, interoperability, and standards adoption. The session held on December 4, 2025, brought together speakers from Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America to share practical experiences from their regions, highlighting both common challenges and emerging opportunities as countries adapt to a rapidly changing global environment.
Anis Fuad, a member of the AeHIN Governing Committee, highlighted the network’s long-standing approach to strengthening interoperability through people and institutions, not technology alone. He emphasized the role of AeHIN’s Community of Interoperability Labs (COIL) as a regional mechanism that enables countries to translate standards into practice by working closely with governments on priority use cases, capacity building, and hands-on technical support.
Drawing from Indonesia’s experience, Fuad used antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance as a concrete example of why interoperability matters. He described how fragmented systems and repetitive data entry across laboratories, spreadsheets, EMRs, and reporting platforms create inefficiencies and burden health workers. He also shared standards-based playbooks, aligned with FHIR and WHO SMART Guidelines concepts, which can help streamline workflows, reduce duplication, and improve data quality and reuse.
Other speakers, such as Saurav Bhattarai from the openIMIS initiative and Emeka Chukwu from the Digital Health Interoperability Network (DHIN), reinforced these messages by sharing how interoperability sandboxes, connectathons, and community-led capacity building can move standards from theory into real-world implementation. Perspectives from HL7 Brazil and Diego Kaminker further highlighted growing national demand for interoperability skills and the importance of governance, terminology, security, and conformance, underscoring that sustainable interoperability requires much more than deploying a FHIR server.