The following is based on the answers to the State of FHIR survey 2023 from Ron Herman, Ministry of Health.
Regulation
Israel's Ministry of Health (MOH) has been proactive in funding FHIR implementation across hospitals and HMOs with investments amounting to 50 million NIS in the past three years. Additional funding has been allocated for SMART on FHIR projects by Israel's Innovation Authority. A draft of Data Portability legislation has been published, which will mandate data exchange based on FHIR and SNOMED standards.
National Standards Development
The Israeli FHIR community is diligently working on developing the national FHIR standard, with active involvement from various stakeholders in healthcare. The ILCORE project, which can be found at Simplifier.net, and the FHIRIL website (FHIR Israel Core) are central to these efforts. A terminology team is also established to implement SNOMED CT across health organizations.
FHIR Implementation
Although the exact extent of FHIR's current use in Israel was not detailed, the country's commitment to its expansion is clear. The Israeli FHIR community is managing and funding various use cases, focusing on improved information access and better data sharing among HMOs and hospitals, particularly for home hospitalization services.
Challenges such as high investment costs and terminology remain, yet the commitment to overcome these through community collaboration and government support is evident.
The national FHIR Community, with representatives from health organizations, government, industry, and academia, plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of FHIR in Israel.