Objectives

• Opportunity for implementers to collaborate and improve their knowledge of OpenHIE
• Share user stories
• Propose new priorities
• Learn from each other about approaches to designing interoperable solutions
• Learn about governance frameworks that have been applied for health system information exchange

Who Should Attend & Why

• Ministry of Health and ICT Leaders who want to learn more about the governance structures around information exchange, architectures and data standards
• Experienced OpenHIE community members and ICT implementers who want to share their experiences and learn from others
• Developers of related health and healthcare application software who want to learn more about standards and system interoperability
• Anyone new to the OpenHIE community who wants to connect with others interested in health information exchange
• Anyone interested in learning about the community, health information architecture, deployment and maintenance of OpenHIE solutions

Conference Schedule

The theme for this years 2019 Community Meeting is data for decision making. The global public health community is driving interoperability in a rapidly changing context, including calls for sustainable universal health coverage (UHC), shifting burdens of disease from communicable to non-communicable diseases, and accelerating HIV/AIDS epidemic control. The objectives are to drive easier and safe data use in software products and interoperability workflows. All sessions at the Community Meeting are meant to be interactive, informative sessions to share best practices and lessons learnt.

Session Types

Conference: These sessions are chosen by the organizers to highlight OpenHIE goals and achievements.  Tracks include; Data Exchange, Implementation Experiences, Leadership & Governance

Unconference: Community-defined topics that are chosen at the conference venue. This is crowd-sourcing to meet evolving the needs of attendees

Academy: These sessions have defined learning objectives and end with a short quiz on the concepts. Attending several academy sessions results in a Certificate of Accomplishment.

Product Demos: Solutions that align with the OpenHIE Architecture will be on display for attendees to explore.

Coding Club: Participants can reserve a space to code with like minded colleagues

"Unconference" Session Details

The OpenHIE Community meeting agenda will have some preset sessions, much like you see at other conferences.  But the agenda also has some “Unconference” sessions in which participants determine the agenda.  At the OpenHIE Community Meeting, we want to be sure Community Members get what they need from the conference, so the flexible agenda will enable time and space for important discussions to occur. This innovative approach of “Unconferencing” has been applied at conferences in the technology sector (i.e. Google, OpenMRS) and has been very well received as an approach to customize a conference to meet the peer-to-peer learning goals of participants.

One the first day of the OpenHIE meeting, we will have an interactive session where participants can propose sessions they would like to see added to the agenda. Couple of principles behind unconference...

• Whoever comes is the right person.  You should go to whatever topic is of interest to you and if you start out in one room and move to another that is fine. 
• Whatever happens is the only thing that could have.  Its the moment that surprise us that we grow so embrace the unexpected.
• Whenever it starts is the right time.  Make sure people have made it into the room as creativity doesn't have a clock so whenever it really "starts" will be the right time.
• When it's over, it's over.  Just because a session is scheduled for 30-60 min doesn't mean that we need to take the entire time, especially if we are done talking about what we came to talk about. 
• When it's not over, it's not over. If a conversation isn't finished thats fine. There will be other opportunities to connect at the meeting and after the fact during community calls.

Some Community Members are already proposing sessions using the wiki page table below, seeding ideas that are important ahead of the Community Meeting.  During the interactive session, we’ll compile a list of all the sessions proposed and participants will vote on their top choices.  Those with the most votes will be added to the “Unconference” sessions in the agenda of the meeting before the end of the first day. Please check https://https://ohie.org/ohie19 for updates to the agenda.

As mentioned above we are taking suggestions for proposed sessions ahead of the Community meeting so please share topics you want to hear about below to help with this process.

Propose Conference Topics

Note Taking

While we plan to have assigned note takers for Community Meeting sessions we do strongly encourage those having ad hoc meetings to take virtual / collaborative notes and post them to this wiki page. Below are instruction on how to create an OpenHIE community ether pad and a table to keep your notes so you can easily find them later.

1. Go to https://notes.ohie.org
2. Type in "YYYY-MM-DD Topic Title"
3. Hit "OK" and ether pad will create the page for you
4. Ad the Topic and URL in the table below

Academy 

As a product of last years meeting OpenHIE is holding its first ever OpenHIE Academy. OpenHIE Academy courses include “up and running” and “advanced” courses. “Up and Running” courses have no prerequisites and are for all audiences, these courses will take place on Monday, 4 November. They provide participants with the essential history, concepts, and competencies to understand the role of OpenHIE as a health information exchange and how to utilize the architecture to enhance data for decision making at all levels of the health system. “Advanced” courses will be offered during general meeting days and on the last day of the conference, also know as Hackonnect-a-thon.

There will be no extra charge for OpenHIE Academy participation but space is limited so please make sure to indicate at registration if you plan to attend.

Hackonnect-a-thon

On Friday, 8 November OpenHIE will host a merger of two exciting types of meetings, what OpenHIE calls a Hackonnect-a-thon. This is a technical space for software teams and architects to engage and get their “hands-in” or “on” OpenHIE itself and see it materialised. Combining the principles of a connectathon and a hackathon we are excited to provide a space for teams to connect their existing tools to OpenHIE workflows and use-cases as well as give the community an opportunity to propose low hanging fruit use cases for the groups to work on. Recognising that many attendees may be new to OpenHIE there is no better way than actively engaging in designing, developing, configuring, implementing and connecting to an OpenHIE architecture to learn the fundamentals and build the relationships that you will need going forward.

There will be no extra charge for OpenHIE Hackonnect-a-thon participation but space is limited so please make sure to indicate at registration if you plan to attend.

Side Meetings 

Some working groups have identified this event as a good opportunity to meet face-to-face and so below we have provided a space for groups to identify themselves so others may be aware and/or participate. Please provide a couple sentences describing around your event below. *Note this does not guarantee your group meeting space during the event.

Applying for Scholarship

The OpenHIE Community Meeting will bring together Ministry of Health and Ministry of ICT leaders, experienced OpenHIE community members, developers of related health application software, and anyone new to the OpenHIE community who wants to learn more during a 3 day Community Meeting, Academy course and/or Hackonnect-athon. The event will take place at the Addis Ababa Hyatt Regency in Ethiopia 4-8 November 2019, find more details around sessions and the agenda at https://ohie.org/ohie19.

There will be a limited number of scholarships available, providing travel support for participants of this event.  Those chosen for a scholarship should be active, motivated members of the OpenHIE community. Scholarship recipients should be ready to come to the Community Meeting, bringing ideas, experiences and lessons learned to share with other participants.  

Please complete this form to apply for a Scholarship to the OpenHIE Community Meeting by 30 August 2019.  No late applications will be accepted.  Recipients of scholarships will be notified by 16 September 2019.

Travel

Visa

There is an online visa application and approval process for entry to Ethiopia - https://www.evisa.gov.et/#/conference-visa. If you need an invitation letter please make sure to indicate this at registration. You will then receive the letter via email 24-48 hours after you complete and pay for your registration. Please note that refunds due to being denied a visa will only be honored if OpenHIE is notified of the denial no later than two weeks prior to the event start date. If you have any questions or concerns please contact Benti Ejeta - bent_ejeta@et.jsi.com. 

Vaccinations

CDC recommendations - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/traveler/none/ethiopia

Transport

The #OHIE19 planning team will help will transport to and from the airport to your hotel. To coordinate transport for people from and to Addis Ababa Bole International Airport (ADD) we will be asking for travel itineraries over the next couple of months via email. If you have already booked your travel please share you itinerary with Benti Ejeta - bent_ejeta@et.jsi.com. 

Accommodations

To get the room rates indicated below at the Addis Ababa Hyatt Regency please book rooms at this special event link - CLICK HERE. 

Other accommodations in the area Marriott Executive Apartments (1 min walk from Hyatt Regency). If you have any questions or concerns please contact Melat Argaw - melat_argaw@et.jsi.com.

Event Sponsorship

How can you help support OpenHIE events?

• • Cash (logo placement, keynote)

  • Pay for line item (logo placement)

  • Pay for participation for individuals (at organizations discretion) or scholarships

If you are interested in assisting with the 2019 OpenHIE Community Meeting or future events please email support@ohie.org.