Meeting-20080913

TSC - Technical Steering Committee

Saturday, September 13, 2008 9:00 AM (US Pacific Time)
GoToMeeting at https://www.gotomeeting.com/join/822618174
GoToMeeting ID: 822-618-174 

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Attendance

Expected

• CTO: John Quinn
• Domain Experts: Jim Case (primary), Austin Kreisler (alternate)
• Foundation & Technology: Ioana Singureanu (primary), Woody Beeler (alternate)
• Structure & Semantic Design: Calvin Beebe (primary), Gregg Seppala (alternate)
• Technical & Support Services: Ken McCaslin (primary), Helen Stevens Love (alternate)
• Affiliate: Frank Oemig,
• ARB Chair: Charlie Mead
• HQ: Karen Van Hentenryck

invited

• Charles Jaffe (CEO); Ed Hammond (HL7 Chair); Chuck Meyer (HL7 Vice Chair); Ed Tripp (newly elected TSC member to take office Jan. 2009); Ravi Natarajan (newly elected TSC member to take office Jan. 2009)

Agenda

1. (5 min) Meeting Admin
   1. Roll Call - The following individuals were present: Charlie McCay, John Koisch, Jim Case, Woody Beeler, Gregg Seppala, Austin Kreisler, Ken McCaslin, John Quinn, Jane Curry, Chuck Meyer, Karen Van Hentenryck Calvin Beebe, Frank Oemig, Ed Hammond, Freida Hall, Dave Hamill (Q4).
   2. How well is the TSC functioning – Charlie McCay asked the TSC members for feedback on how they feel the TSC is functioning. He feels that the group been good with the reactive and day-to-day issues, but less effective with planning issues. He noted there is good attendance at conference calls but observed that not much work is being done via the listserv between calls. Several methods were discussed for increasing the effectiveness of the TSC. ACTION ITEM: The TSC members decided to do more routine voting online voting and use the calls for planning/strategic issues. The process will be worked out off-line.
   3. Agenda review:
      • Getting new TSC members up to speed - There were questions on how the new TSC members will be brought up to speed. Van Hentenryck noted that they were invited to join the TSC meetings in Vancouver. They will also be added to the TSC list and encouraged to participate in the weekly calls to be brought up to speed.
      • Laboratory Work Group – Austin Kreisler indicated that the Lab group is challenged and they are discussing what needs to be done. Co-chairs being laid off and/or re-directed and not able to do their work. The Work Group members are also unable to participate as needed. There is a dissolution of WG volunteers and this needs discussion.
      • Dissolution of volunteer resources - Singurenau would like a brief discussion regarding the possibility of WGs being supported by administrative staff.
2. Q1 – Review Issues Log
   • 319 – This is still an issue. We are about to violate our principles RE backwards compatibility. Will keep this as a TSC issue. Need task force to deal with this. ACTION ITEM: Quinn will lead the task force. Hot Topic scheduling for MnM will occur on Sunday,Q3. Quinn feels this should be resolved by next meeting. INM, MNM, ITS, pubs need to be involved in the solution. Identifry issues and potential solutions this week.
   • 321 – Keep as open. Will expire the item if not resolved by Jan 2009.
   • 322 – Ballot issue that is still open.
   • 323 – Jane Curry is working on tooling proposal. Implications will be considered when dealing with this. Once this is in place T3SD will develop some policy. This is WG collaboration type of tools, not RMIM designers. ACTION ITEM: Electronic Svcs will make a recommendation by January 2009 meeting. Now that wiki is HL7, the mandate to move things to web site. Once we have the proposal we can develop appropriate policies.
   • Closed
   • 329 – Close
   • 332 – This is still an open issue. HL7 completed work goes to ISO, This is outside JIC work. If work needs to be modified to be an international standard, then it needs to go to JIC. Hammond will provide the template. ACTION ITEM: Quinn will update the document that is available online and then we’ll close this item
   • 339 – Closed
   • 382 – Will close with PIC releases its generic updated DMPs
   • 383 - Close. INM has a task force dealing with this. whether fields length should be normative
   • 388 – Wilfred is working on updating Grorge. When that upgrade is completed, Wilfred will turn his attention to these changes
   • 400 – Closed and referred to Affiliate council
   • 401 – Closed. This is being dealt with by a Board task force. Another issue has bubbled up RE vocabulary. Currently there is no method for binding vocab. HITSP Foundation work group is thinking of becoming a WG and balloting these as informative docs. This is related to how US deals with its vocabulary.
   • 405 – Closed – HQ will create an DB similar to the V2 and CDA databases
   • 410 – This is being dealt with, short term, by the contract with Ted Klein and Russ Hamm. The chronic problem remains. Short term we may wish to have a contract with Ted/Russ to address this. Long term, this will be solved by the appropriate tooling. This will be rsolved when the chronic problem is addressed.
   • 457 – Still open and will be discussed in Q4
   • 586 - Need check box or text bxs on the project form
   • 587 – Still opened but should be closed when Don does this.
   • 588 – Still open
   • 589 – Wilfred will do this
   • 590 – Still open
   • 591 – Still open
   • 592 – Closed
   • 593 – Open
   • 596 – Still open. Beebe to make recommendation
   • 597 – Open
   • 611 – Closed.
3. Q2 – Roadmap Review - Hammond gave an overview/history on the Roadmap document. The Roadmap document was originally much longer. but over the course of several months, we’ve collapsed several issues into one. We now have a spreadsheet of tasks that can be sorted and will be tracked. Hammond noted that the tasks must be clear enough that the person responsible for the tasks understands what need to be accomplished and what the deliverable is. Staff has developed a process to track the tasks and vett and disposition the suggestions. Hammond noted that the EHR WG, for example, gave us great detail regarding what needs to be done. We collapsed many of those details into a single task on the Roadmap and pushed the details back to the WGs. Dates have been assigned to each task, and the TSC should look at the overall plan and to those tasks for which it has responsibility. Jaffe wanted the TSC to review the document first before it was opened up to the rest of the co-chairs. Hammond noted that we need TSC feedback on the dates and the details. Quinn estimated, from his perspective, the resources, (both time and $) required to accomplish the tasks. The TSC may WGs may have different estimates. Quinn also noted that the Roadmap tasks will be in competition with some of the other things that need to be done in the WGs or things they wish to do. Beeler suggested that the TSC scope its discussion so that the group doesn't get mired in the details. McCay feels that the TSC has until Sunday to confirm the dates in the Roadmap document and suggested that the group vote on the dates on Sunday evening. McCaslin is less interested in voting on dates as he is on agreeing on the tasks. Hammond noted that the intent was never to have the TSC vote on the dates or tasks, but to get their input on the document itself. McCay observed that the document was distributed to the TSC a couple of weeks ago, but not many TSC members commented on this document. This was not due to lack of interest but because they were asked to comment during a particularly busy time. General comments were as follows:
   • Kreisler noted that he doesn’t see the connection between the Roadmap and what 90% of the WGs are working on. Quinn and Hammond responded that putting into the Roadmap what all the WGs are doing was inappropriate. What we need to do is match the work of the WGs' three year plans with the Roadmap plan.
   • McCay feels that the Roadmap does not summarize what the organization is doing, but represents areas that need change. McCay would like to what the purpose of the Roadmap is--what will it be used for? If the purpose of the document is to communicate with outside stakeholders and inform them of the changes coming down the road, this is good. If the purpose of the doc is to inform the organization, it will not be particularly effective. #*Singureanu observed that the document is a mix of tactical and strategic tasks.
   • Beeler feels that you need to trace back to the five strategies as the details regarding the WG projects can be represented by the five strategies.
   • Kreisler feels that the purpose of the document must be clearly articulated as the co-chairs will have the same comments on the tasks that the TSC had.
   • Stevens Love noted that the task list is not a communications plan but the high level strategies are. ACTION ITEM: The strategies and task list documents will be updated to clearly articulate their intended use.
   • HL7 is moving into the intra organization space–that is the big shift and where V3 is going. From a marketing/communications perspective this is important. Strategy 4 represents a major shift in how WGs are presenting their work. Also, the strategy is represented such to imply that EHR and PHR are the same. ACTION ITEM: Correct PHR as it currently refers to personal health records and public health record. ACTION ITEM: TSC will draft a document that articulates what the Roadmap means to the TSC and WGs.
   • McCay feels that the Roadmap should summarize what the organization is going to be working on in the next three years.
   • Beeler feels that the TSC should ask if the WGs are doing things that support the strategies. If they are doing things that don’t support the strategies, the TSC may need to intervene.
   • Strategy 1 Comments
     • Beeler thinks technical architecture needs to be added
     • Stevens Love would like examples to be clearly identified as examples and ensure people know this is not a definitive list
     • Case didn’t see a strategy that looks at structure of organization and makes appropriate change (continuous process improvement). He suggested adding a sub bullet under this strategy to address this.
     • Stevens-Love feels strategy 1.4 belongs in strategy 4. Others felt this point was trying to address the technical architecture and if so belongs where it is.
     • Stevens Love suggested that we add the word “products” to the end of strategy 1
   • Strategy 2 Comments
     • Beeler would like strategy 2.4 to explicitly mention CEN
     • Strategies 2.3 and 2.4 should be worded simularly. The title should use the term SDO
     • McCay suggested that this strategy be explicit about US, international, and other other regions.
     • McCaslin questioned the strategy document that contains tactical elements and suggested that the the strategies focus on relationships and the task list focus on tactical elemets.
     • Stevens Loves suggested that this strategy speak to two distinct perspective, one is US and the other is International.
     • Oemig observed we have SDOs and other orgs. On intl basis and by affiliate basis. The by affiliate basis items should be listed elsewhere.
     • Beeler feels that international perspective be moved to item 3. He will add this comment via the comment site.
     • McCaslin is struggled with fact that we are making this US centric and thus he agrees with Woody’s comment.
   • Strategy 3 Comments
     • Beeler suggested that implementation tools may need to be mentioned in this strategy
   • Strategy 4 Comments– Have already talked about this strategy at length
   • Strategy 5 Comments
     • Beeler suggested broadening this strategy to include scientists in addition to clinicians.
4. Q3 – Tooling/ArB Work
   • Discussion around governance enterprise architecture and SOA
   • Update on tooling initiative/next steps - Jane Curry provided a report on the tooling initiative based on the attached slide deck [1]
5. Q4 – Project/Work Group Management
   • Work Group health metrics
   • 3 year plans
   • SWOTs