Lausanne, Jan 22, 2018 — Pryv, the leading provider of privacy and personal data management software, today announced an R&D collaboration with the eHealth unit of HES-SO Valais- Wallis in Sierre (University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland), to automate semantization of healthcare data for effective discovery and exchange across the patient’s continuum of care. The initiative aims to build (up) a common vocabulary and taxonomy that will pave the way for accurate and reliable data communication that can rationalize disparate Electronic Healthcare Records, augment the health level 7 (HL7) series of standards and ensure meaningful use of patient data.
“One of the main technology barrier for providing patient-centered healthcare is the problem that patient data is often housed in a number of disparate systems across multiple locations” says Professor Michael Schumacher. “We joined forces with Pryv to include rich semantics in the data model and automate the import of datasets to close communication gaps.”
Semantization provides interoperability at the highest level in the electronic exchange of patient information among caregivers and other authorized parties. This improves quality, safety, efficiency and efficacy of healthcare delivery. When correctly implemented, EHR interoperability ensures that providers understand the patient as an individual with a medical history and network. Its objective is to address the challenges of how healthcare systems inform various stakeholders involved in a patient’s care as well as how organizational facets of health information exchange will coordinate together for the benefit of patients.
“The inclusion of rich semantics into Pryv.io goes beyond the traditional tagging and key word classification” says Pierre-Mikael Legris, CEO of Pryv. “The eHealth unit of HES-SO Valais-Wallis is helping us to incorporate algorithms from machine learning and rule inferencing that can progressively learn the type and variety of data, and propose/assign explicit semantics as it flows through our software.”
Alongside of the R&D collaboration, HES-SO Valais Wallis is making the Pryv.io personal data management platform available to its 2’500 students and staff members. The environment is designed to accelerate digital health innovation and enable eHealth research projects such as an m-health self-monitoring solution for patients undergoing physiotherapy treatments.
About Pryv
Pryv makes essential software for data-driven healthcare innovation. Our purpose-built middleware helps organizations manage personal data from creation to use, sharing and disposal. We accelerate time to market, cut IT development costs and speed up connectivity to all data sources. Pryv addresses the enhanced citizen’s right under GDPR and turns privacy compliance into a competitive advantage. For more information: pryv.com
About the eHealth unit of the Institute Information Systems HES-SO Valais-Wallis
The eHealth unit is part of the Institute of Information Systems of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES-SO). Based in Sierre (Valais, Switzerland), the eHealth unit undertakes applied research in close collaboration with public or private companies and institutions. It has gained solid experience with complex interdisciplinary projects related to digital health, at national and international levels. The eHealth unit has for instance invested many research efforts in the development of sensor-based mHealth applications for chronic diseases (e.g. diabetes type 1 and 2). Furthermore, the unit has developed expertise in health record data interchange and the usage of standards (HL7, FHIR), as well as the development of privacy and anonymity preserving algorithms for health data exchange (Nano-Tera.ch ISyPeM2 project). It is also working on blockchain-based healthcare data management and on a prototype of a framework for managing and sharing EMR data for cancer patient care. It is investing many efforts in personalized health support, such as for coaching in physiotherapy, or smoking cessation programs run on social networks with chatbot supports.