Reflections on Women for FHIR at DevDays 2024

Women for FHIR is back! After its inception at FHIR DevDays 2023, it’s inspiring to see how the initiative has grown. This year, the Women for FHIR lunch and breakout panel session were filled with thought-provoking discussions, new connections, and plenty of insights from women and men alike.

Here’s some of my key takeaways and reflections from these sessions. 

Welcoming Newcomers

The FHIR community is incredibly welcoming, but there was a consensus that we can further improve onboarding for newcomers by explaining things like Work Group Meetings (WGMs), Zulip, and the appropriate channels for addressing questions. Creating a more inclusive environment starts with ensuring that new members feel supported and informed. 

One of our panelists, Vivian Neilley, shared how, as a non-developer, it is easy to get overwhelmed by the technical knowledge of an (often male) team of developers. Simply knowing that there are others who might not fully understand everything can be comforting. This is where spaces for discussion like FHIR DevDays are great in sharing these thoughts. 

On a similar note, while the Women for FHIR channel on Zulip is valuable, the Zulip environment is quite technical and not used on a daily basis by everyone in the FHIR community (such as non-developers).

There’s potential to create a space more suited to general discussion and support, and there was some discussion about what this might look like—a LinkedIn group for example. This might provide a more accessible platform for networking and exchanging ideas. If you have any ideas of your own, please feel free to reach out! 

The Importance of Mentorship

Continuing on that theme was the idea of mentorship. At the Women for FHIR lunch, we discussed what this might look like and landed on some of the key qualities required of a good mentor: truly caring, listening, understanding, helping mentees gain confidence, being a cheerleader, and making introductions. 

However, we noted that it’s not just about having mentors; it’s about fostering a supportive community. The qualities listed there help build a network of support that goes beyond individual relationships. But perhaps most importantly, we emphasized the need to keep these conversations alive beyond events to maintain the momentum and support system we’ve built. 

A More Representative FHIR

The Women for FHIR initiative, now in its second year, brought forward some important points about how to support greater representation within the FHIR community. After all, the initiative all started last year when it was discovered that there was no way to express the menstrual cycle in FHIR. 

So we started the panel discussion by diving into: where are we now? The session emphasized the importance of ongoing discussions to raise awareness and ensure diverse scenarios are considered in new use cases. Part of that discussion revolved around the male bias in healthcare and the necessity of including the female perspective.

We talked about the importance of going beyond standard procedures, like the technical Zulip channels and the feedback and ballot processes, to actively seek input from women and other important voices in the development of the FHIR standard. 

One key point was the need to look beyond just code. We need to involve clinicians in these discussions, whose expertise is essential for developing solutions that accurately reflect diverse healthcare needs. This approach not only enriches the development process of FHIR but also would naturally bring more women into the conversation. 

Kate Ebrill shared how Sparked—an Australian government-funded initiative responsible for the first release of the Australian Core Data for Interoperability (AUCDI R1)—is bringing clinicians, consumers, software industry, and government to the table to do just that. And by the way, they are looking at ways to express the menstrual cycle.

Personal Reflections

This was my first time on the DevDays stage, and I was incredibly honored to lead the Women for FHIR initiatives and to build on the foundations of the Women for FHIR launch in 2023. However, I must admit that as I was kicking off Day 3 of DevDays in front of an audience of 350 people (predominantly male), I felt a bit uncomfortable. I thought to myself, “would they even be interested in what I have to say?” 

But I reminded myself that this is exactly what Women for FHIR is for: bringing the female perspective to the community and ensuring our voices are heard. It gave me the inspiration I needed to get back out on the main stage later that day for the Women for FHIR lunch debrief. 

I also shared this experience with the Women for FHIR audience because (back to the learnings we discussed in welcoming newcomers) knowing there are others who feel the same as you can be incredibly empowering. So, thank you to all the people that approached me to show their appreciation for the Women for FHIR initiatives. It’s always nice to get confirmation that your contribution is valued!

I also want to thank Vivian Neilley (and her perfect wig), Kate Ebrill, Virginia Lorenzi, and Sheridan Cook for their contributions as panel members and facilitators at the different lunch tables. Unfortunately, we couldn’t have Women for FHIR ambassador Michaela Ziegler there in Minneapolis; however her great blog post inspired me to keep having those conversations.

Looking ahead

The Women for FHIR initiatives have led to some insightful learnings since it began. The discussions at DevDays 2024 have shown that there is a strong desire for a more inclusive and supportive FHIR community.

Moving forward, we need to continue these conversations, create more accessible platforms for discussion, and actively seek diverse perspectives in our work.  

The positive feedback and engagement throughout DevDays 2024 has confirmed the importance of this initiative. I’m excited to see it continue to grow and evolve at DevDays 2025 and beyond!