Meet the Sparked Clinical Co-Leads: Dr Chaturica Athukorala
Meet Dr Chat Athukorala – radiologist, CMO and Co-Founder of Aurabox, and Sparked Clinical Design Group Co-Lead.
Chat currently works as a radiologist at the Canberra Hospital and BreastScreen ACT, is a member of the RANZCR Digital Health Committee, and is the founder of imaging platform, Aurabox. Her vast knowledge and expertise make her a valued and integral member of the Clinical Design Group, and we are so grateful to have Chat within our community!
We asked Chat some questions about her involvement in Sparked, this is what she had to say!
🤔 How did you become involved with Sparked?
I began attending Sparked events to ensure that Aurabox is able to participate in an interoperable healthcare ecosystem. I was so impressed by the multidisciplinary nature of the Sparked project which brings together expertise from CSIRO, government, industry, technologists and clinicians. I was thrilled to be asked to join the Clinical Design Group as a co-lead which allows me to combine my passions of clinical medicine, healthcare innovation and health data interoperability.
🤔 What does Sparked mean to you?
The inefficiencies that clinicians face when attempting to access information to look after their patients places a significant burden on our healthcare system and contributes to poor patient outcomes. This is because important patient information is stored in data silos that largely do not and can not efficiently communicate with one another. The first step to overcome this is to develop a standard ‘language’ that systems can communicate with which is the important job that Sparked is tackling. In order to do this, Sparked is creating a multi-disciplinary community to ensure that standards are fit for purpose and connections are formed between key stakeholders to facilitate future implementation.
🤔 What is something that you hope to achieve within the Sparked program?
I hope to contribute my knowledge of clinical workflow and medicine to contribute to developing a national, fit for purpose FHIR implementation guide.
🤔 How is the Sparked program different to projects you’ve been involved in before?
The Sparked program is unique in that it is taking a truly multi-disciplinary approach in order to tackle problems faced with health data interoperability. The program combines expertise from CSIRO, government, industry, clinicians and technologists which is unlike any other project that I have been involved with before.
🤔 What’s been your favourite part of working within the Sparked team?
The positive energy!
🤔 How will the goals and outcomes of the Sparked Program impact your field/industry/profession?
Currently, medical professionals like me waste significant amounts of time and resources trying to access the information that they need to look after their patients across multiple disparate storage systems. In order to facilitate communication between these systems, they must first be able to communicate using a common language. This is what the Sparked program is addressing and is a crucial first step to achieving a connected healthcare ecosystem. The end result of this is improved clinical efficiency and optimised patient outcomes.
🤔 What’s your favourite Sparked/FHIR pun?
FHIRiends – I have made a lot of them by being part of the Sparked program 😀