HL7 Australia appoints David Rowlands as new chair

HL7 Australia has appointed David Rowlands as the new chair to replace Dr Isobel Frean, who will be continuing on the board as a non-executive director.

Rowlands is a health and informatics veteran who led the development of A Health Interoperability Standards Development, Maintenance and Management Model for Australia in 2020 and of the Australian FHIR Management Framework in 2023.

He is also on the board of WentWest, which provides the Primary Health Network (PHN) in Western Sydney, and has served on the boards of the Australasian Institute of Digital Health (AIDH), and aged care and child health service providers. He is a Fellow and Honorary Life Member of the AIDH, an Associate Fellow of the Australasian College of Health Service Management (ACHSM) and a Certified Health Informatician Australasia (CHIA).

“I look forward to supporting Australia’s vibrant and growing HL7 community during the modernisation of Australia’s health sector,” said Rowlands.

“Patient-centred care that addresses the complex care Australians require simply cannot be delivered without the safe, reliable and rapid movement of clinical and other information, and HL7 standards — particularly FHIR — developed openly and transparently, are central to that.”

HL7 has also appointed Dr Andy Bond as a new member to the board of directors.

Bond is a digital health architect with experience across government and industry as a history of standards contributions through HL7 Australia, Standards Australia IT-014, as well as HL7 International. He is an interoperability architect at Magentus with a focus on their growing interoperability investment in FHIR-based partnerships. He brings a focus on a sustainable investment in FHIR through a lens of industry as well as a strong belief in the power of a FHIR community working openly together.

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