Video library

Eleven candid interviews with the clinicians, informaticians and builders behind openEHR, recorded around EHRCON24 in November 2024.

The EHRCON24 auditorium in Reading, November 2024
2024 openEHR interview series Recorded at EHRCON24, 5 November 2024, Reading, UK

These interviews bring together clinicians, informaticians, and builders who have spent years - in some cases decades - working on the problem of health data. Several are among the original architects of openEHR. Others have led national-scale implementations, built open-source tooling, or are practising clinicians who experienced the failures of the current system firsthand.

The conversations are candid. Speakers describe what is broken and why - vendor lock-in, data trapped in proprietary formats, procurement that defaults to the wrong questions, and a global health IT industry that has spent trillions without establishing the common foundations that would make it work. They also describe what is possible, and what they have already built.

We recorded these to move insight beyond the usual circles - to make the case, in plain language and from direct experience, for a different approach to digital health infrastructure.

The interviews

Still from the interview with Sam HeardSam HeardChair of the openEHR Foundation Board and a practising GP in Central AustraliaCommunity-controlled lifelong records and data sovereignty for Aboriginal health services Still from the interview with Heather LeslieHeather LeslieChief Clinical Information Officer at openEHR InternationalCollaborative archetype governance and the cost of every country building its own datasets Still from the interview with Patrik Georgii-HemmingPatrik Georgii-HemmingChief Medical Information Officer at Karolinska University HospitalClinician-led transformation and why document-management EHRs are the wrong tool Still from the interview with David IngramDavid IngramEmeritus Professor of Health Informatics at University College LondonThe founding of openEHR and the care information utility Still from the interview with Thomas BealeThomas BealeChief Technical Architect of the openEHR specificationsThe reference model, the archetype layer, and why the remaining barriers are political Still from the interview with Ian McNicollIan McNicollChief Executive of FreshEHR Clinical InformaticsClinician-led modelling, micro-innovations and community governance Still from the interview with Jordi Piera JimenezJordi Piera JimenezDirector of Digital Health Strategy for the Catalan Health ServiceCatalonia's move from fragmented EMRs to an open platform Still from the interview with Sidharth RameshSidharth Rameshfounder and CEO of MedblocksEliminating manual data transfers and why data quality depends on process Still from the interview with Andy MeinerAndy Meinerfounder of SI-Squared and co-chair of openEHR UKHarmonising open standards for the longitudinal patient record Still from the interview with Silvio KimmelSilvio KimmelProduct Manager at vitagroup AGCo-developing clinical apps on an open platform Still from the interview with Alex VidreanAlex VidreanProduct Owner for EHRbaseDecentralising clinical data ownership through open-source implementation