HL7 January 2015 WGM San Antonio

It is a bit funny that it was my very first time to attend a HL7 conference or meeting held in the USA in my almost seventeen years career as a health IT specialist, throughout which I had been involved in the international health IT standardisation organisation via its affiliates in Japan and in New Zealand.

Previously, I had attended two International HL7 Interoperability Conferences (IHICs) in Acapulco, Mexico (2004) and in Auckland, New Zealand (2007). Even talking about Working Group Meetings (WGMs), I had attended those in Kyoto, Japan (2009) and in Sydney, Australia (2011). So I was not one of new faces at all, rather an old head with more than a decade of attendance records.

I think this shows the crucial importance of holding HL7 meetings and conferences outside of the USA regularly. The HL7 New Zealand (HL7 NZ) has a policy of sending one delegate to each WGM. Thus this time I was a proxy to the HL7 NZ Chair, David Hay, but in the occasion like the one in Sydney, we could send all the board members to the event. Such opportunities would help both the HL7 International and the affiliates in and around hosting countries share problems and exchange ideas for potential solutions.

My tweets and others' with the hashtag #HL7WGM pretty much covered the discussions happened in the WGM and you can dig in the wiki pages of Working Groups for further details so I would not repeat them here. I would like to conclude by introducing a music clip (although without no connections to the event except I knew about the band/tune in the return flight) which I think would summarise the meeting well. Enjoy!

Demystifying Zen

"Did Zen ideas create the kamikaze?" I was astonished when I saw the title. It was an article Ven Yushi Shimada, a friend of mine and a Zen monk introduced in his Japanese twitter account.

It argues that (Japanese philosophers' interpretations of) Zen's pursuit for "nothingness" made psychological pathway into dedication to the nation in devoting to the suicide attack.

My master wrote that enlightenment in Zen can be achievable in devotion to one's vocation as well as in practicing Zazen (sitting Zen) meditation. However, it is far more constructive context than above.

You may question reading "My master wrote" as Zen is famous for not relying on written words in conveying teachings.

In my humble opinion, the "no written words" rule should be understood this way. If you and your partner think exactly the same thing in exactly the same way and you both say a word, what would happen? Would you need to write down the word?

Reflections on HINZ 2014

The annual convention of the Health Informatics New Zealand, HINZ 2014 Conference and Exhibition was held on 10-12 November at SKYCITY Auckland.

It was a massive experience for me and honestly I am still in recovering mode. So much people to meet, so much discussions to join and so much information to absorb.

It started with the mobile health and FHIR seminar by HL7 New Zealand in which I was a part of the organising team but it really had heated up the scene. The rest of the conference was also dominated by the mood of something big were just started everywhere.

No one made the question which was heard until the last year: "How can New Zealand Health IT lead the pack again?" Here we are, back in full steam.

Spring has come

At last the spring weather has come to New Zealand and it is the season for cherry blossoms here. The cherry blossoms here have their own paces and they are not so synchronised like their counterparts in Japan.

Actually large majorities of the cherry trees in Japan are cloned sisters. So they bloom at the same time in one region and the "blooming front" sweeps throughout the archipelago like a wave of cheers by a capacity crowd in a football stadium.

The spectators also go wild in the season in Japan. As the climax is short-lived, the battles to "occupy" better places for cherry blossom viewing parties are really fierce. Because even slight changes of the weather may slow or accelerate blooming, the party organisers have to watch out for weather forecasts to determine the timing of the event.

However, I prefer the way cherries bloom in New Zealand. As each tree has its own time to bloom we can enjoy cherry blossoms for a prolonged period even in one region. Also there are not intense competitions to secure a good view of them. I also like the contrast of the blue sky and the green lawn as the background of pink blossoms.

Apart from the contrast of colours, so was in Japan before cloned cherries dominated there, I think.

The moon over the rainbow

Hawaiians said, "No rain, no rainbows."

After another busy day, seeing the moon over a gorgeous rainbow was just awesome.

Through coloured spectacles

The lenses in the photo above have nearly 90% transparency and give you a high contrast view especially in dawn, sunset and rainy conditions. However, you will definitely feel strange when you wear them as you will lose sense of colours. Your view will go monotonous just with shades of yellow.

It is very interesting as they are only cutting 10% of visible lights and actually boosting your sense of contrast but you can no longer distinguish between colours.

Even more interestingly, although similar things happen when you are focusing on a particular aspect on your observation or experience, you won't notice the difference unlike the effect of yellow sunglasses.

A human is so prone to biases, isn't it?

Decision 2014

I have been always keen to vote since back in where I originally came from, but I have found New Zealand elections are much more exciting.

Everyone was talking about politics during the weeks preceding the election day, with many openly arguing which candidate and party should get their votes or should not. Some of them even tried to persuade others to follow the suit.

The result this time was the reflection of New Zealand currently doing well overall compared with other parts of the world. Definitely reemerged fears of wars and violences seem to have made Kiwis prefer stability and continuity.

It is a difficult time for lefties as the world less seems to a place of corporation, but rather of competition. However, by cleverly sharing information and knowledge utilising abundant computing power and ubiquitous network, corporation will eventually beat competition in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, not only in equality and diversity.

I think that finding the way to achieve it is the challenge for the Labour Party for the next three years.