Spatial health

The article describes how a new OGC domain working group will look at how geospatial standards can improve health around the world. The group seeks to identify possible health industry 'profiles' of standards and gaps in current standards. DWGs help develop scenarios for interoperability experiments, pilot projects and testbeds, and they sometimes give rise to new Standards Working Groups that develop standards or best practices for the use of standards. DWGs also do market research, issue engineering reports on the state of the art and develop domain communication strategies to promote awareness, participation and market uptake of standards. Members agreed on the need to collaborate with other key programs and organizations. There have been discussions with Health Level Seven International (HL7) representatives about possible coordination. HL7 is a not-for-profit organization that is dedicated to providing a comprehensive framework and related international standards for the exchange, integration, sharing and retrieval of electronic health information.