The HL7 Vulcan FHIR Accelerator saw significant change and excitement over the past year. In spring, we welcomed a new PMO team of organizational superstars to support member initiatives, promote successes, and ensure communication across our membership. The PMO worked with the board to clearly define Vulcan’s vision, mission, goals, and objectives, enabling the PMO to support those initiatives effectively.
In June, we saw the culmination of our first Vulcan Interoperability Bridge (VIB) project cohort, with over 30 organizations presenting six use cases for four implementation guides via a webinar. This was the result of over a year of collaboration, writing, testing, building, and finally showcasing just a handful of interoperability and FHIR possibilities in the world of clinical research. The six use cases fell into three main themes: operational efficiencies for internal systems and research site-to-sponsor communications, regulatory compliance, and real-world data through health information exchanges or direct patient engagement. Both Stephen Konya from the ASTP and Mitra Rocca from the FDA joined the webinar to discuss the importance of this milestone and the value of the VIB program, which allowed these implementation guides to be tried, tested and validated. The webinar was recorded with the implementation guides, use cases, and demos now living on the Vulcan website.
Following the completion of the first VIB cohort, Vulcan issued a press release about the program, which led to an interview opportunity with Healthcare Innovations. We are hopeful that the media feature will be published before the end of the year.
Over the summer, the Vulcan PMO presented its first-ever marketing strategy plan, complete with expanded member benefits. The core of the newly announced member benefits allows member spotlights and thought leadership articles to be promoted on LinkedIn, increasing visibility for the member and Vulcan. Member spotlights can focus on either organizational initiatives, individual achievements, or thought leadership. The PMO is currently encouraging all Vulcan members to take advantage of this new benefit.
Lastly, Vulcan ended the year with two successful events: one in Copenhagen, Denmark, and one in Japan. The Copenhagen event was co-hosted with TEHDAS, and gathered representatives from various European Union countries, all of whom are active in the European Health Data Space (EHDS) political landscape. Vulcan was able to present on our mission, ongoing projects, and successes. Additionally, we held panel discussions and TED Talk-style spotlights on individual projects. The event also included a breakout workshop where people worked to unpack and solve key problems in the EHDS. Overall, it was a tremendous success with much interest from the attending government officials.
One month later, Vulcan met with the PMDA in Japan. This government branch oversees drug regulation and hosted an APAC Summit to introduce the Vulcan accelerator and VIB program to interested Japanese parties. There was tangible excitement from the Japanese attendees and significant interest in joining the Vulcan initiative.
All in all, there is renewed energy in the Vulcan FHIR Accelerator, and members should be proud of everything they accomplished this year. There is palpable momentum heading into 2026, with growing interest in various Vulcan projects and the goal of launching a second VIB cohort.
Cheers to a successful 2025 on FHIR! Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season, and a warm invitation to check in on everything Vulcan has going on at HL7Vulcan.org.
