Over the years, health data has become increasingly fragmented. With the onslaught of possibilities IT innovation has offered, the IT landscapes of healthcare organisations have become both vast and complex. Software integrations are often difficult to build and a headache to maintain. When a system is replaced, data rarely moves cleanly with it. As a result, clinicians lose access to critical parts of a patient’s history, and patients face gaps in their continuity of care.
A single patient’s care journey can span a century – but software does not have this longevity. So how do we ensure that a patient’s data outlasts the software used to record it?
Enter openEHR.
The basics of openEHR
As stated in this article by CODE24:
“openEHR (or “open Electronic Health Record”) is an open standard for modeling, storing and handling healthcare data. It is effectively a set of documents that can be used to build information and interoperability solutions in healthcare, such as EHR’s and other healthcare information systems.”
The standard relies on a fundamental principle: separating clinical data from application code. This separation is the precise reason data can outlive any vendor’s software. Because care data is stored independently from application logic, an organisation can upgrade or replace an app without touching the underlying records. The data remains intact, structured, and instantly reusable by whatever system comes next.
Data for Life
In her article ‘Data for Life: a 2040 Vision for Healthcare’, Rachel Dunscombe (previous CEO of openEHR International and current CEO of HL7 International) outlined an ambitious vision for healthcare IT:
“Imagine it’s 2040. A patient’s journey is no longer a fragmented series of disconnected episodes, but a seamless, lifelong narrative. Their health data, captured from birth, flows securely between providers, powers preventative insights on their personal devices, and contributes to global research – all with their consent and control. This isn’t science fiction; it’s the destination we are actively building, and the roadmap is guided by a simple but profound principle: Data for Life.”
In order to make this happen, health records should be vendor neutral. Patients’ health data should not be trapped in proprietary silos, but flow where it is needed to inform clinical decision making and drive quality care.
Achieving ‘Data for Life’ delivers immediate, practical benefits: smoother continuity of care, fewer repeated tests, and safer clinical handovers. Standardised, structured data can power medical research and population health initiatives. Healthcare organisations would no longer have to sacrifice historical data in the name of IT modernisation. Software can evolve, while data remains secure at a standardised, vendor-neutral source.
Let’s Do the Work
Of course, openEHR is not a silver bullet. Making openEHR platforms succeed in practice requires real effort. But if we agree that patient data should last a lifetime, we can build that future together; by standardising data governance, launching local pilots, and sharing what we learn along the way.
If you are interested in being part of this conversation, EHRCON26, the international openEHR Conference, is just around the corner… We would love to see you in Amsterdam on the 22nd and 23rd of September, to connect and exchange ideas.
