This year will be better

I am not big into predictions, but I do want to hold myself to last years predictions. Lucky for me I didn't predict much.

1. Less Blog posts in 2013 and 2014 -- Nailed it: I was close to 100 articles per year prior to 2013. In 2013 I only posted 56 articles, and 2014 only posted 28. Much of this is because I am busy doing more work inside of GE, in a good way. But it also seems I am getting less questions to answer, or those that I am getting I find an existing article that answers it. I am still willing to answer questions posted to my "Ask me a Question".
2. Bluebutton+ will seem right, yet confuse. -- Nailed it again: It seems that those who loved Bluebutton+ decided to switch to riding the FHIR horse. And now they are going to cause yet-another year delay by merging the confusion of Bluebutton+ with the chaos of FHIR. I am not saying that FHIR is bad, just that we have about 4 more years of maturity before it will be useful for simple stuff - Like "Download", or "Transfer". I am also not implying that the Argonaut project is bad, it was necessary to get very needed and worthy funding to some FHIR projects. Throughout this confusion, I will continue on my quest to make reasonable Profiles of simple standards, yes mostly focused on FHIR.
3. HIE Patient Identity.-- I'm going to say I failed in my prediction. There was progress, much like I predicted. But I really expected us to have a much better consensus on how to solve this one. I think I simply underestimated the 'business' priorities to keep it unsolved.
4. Profiles.-- I think I will take partial success. There is still positive movement toward the need for Profiles, however very little. Mostly indistinguishable from last year, just  slightly better. What has helped toward progress is the efforts in FHIR to create a Profile mechanism at the technical level. These efforts have not really succeeded, and will change radically this year, but they do show the benefit of the concept of a Profile.

My Focus
My focus this year will continue to be on the internal projects. I am at the core of the GE Healthcare business implementation of the GE corporate "Software" initiative, known as Predix. Most of the GE 'standards geeks' have been pulled into this, well actually most of us pushed our way into it. Keith and I worked very hard to, not only get inside of this effort, but to convince them that it must be fundamentally based on #FHIR. We succeeded, in a big way and are now in leadership positions. One outcome GE intends, is to instrument and improve efficiency in healthcare, much like Predix is being used in the other industries - aka the "Industrial Internet". This same concept will also directly help our customers meet Meaningful Use. I can't really speak much more about it, but I am excited about it.


The bad part is that I will spend less time doing the external standards work I so enjoy, and will be spending more of my time in San Ramon, Budapest, and Bangalore. The first 8 weeks of the year, I am on-the-road for 6 of them.


Optimism
I am still optimistic, the alternative is just not acceptable in healthcare. I will likely blog about as much as I did in 2014, possibly more. As to other predictions, I will just let my 2014 stand in for 2015. I will be spending my time on making progress. We must and will move forward.