The specialty fields vary from nation to nation, the division of specialties can be sometimes blurry and can seem fairly arbitrary, overlapping. It seems strange since medicine today is very science based, and science itself is very international. Doctors from all over the world try hard to exchange knowledge and be cutting edge. But still the specialty fields remain a bit different and not truly synchronized.

2. SPECIALTY FIELDS
AND INTEROPERABILITY
IT solutions for healthcare of tomorrow have to
function in such a way to be able to communicate
between each other and also integrate with
systems that already exist but live as lonely
islands most of the time today.
Developing solutions that can speak this
health IT Esperanto have to take into
account several international standards or
registries. This is the only way to make
communication meaningful to all sides
involved.
A lot of standardization (IHE, HL7, ICD-10,
SNOMED CT,…) is taking place and is
already available to those that wish to make
products that truly work.

3. …But then you bump into the specialty fields in medicine.
Something one could regard as a pretty straightforward
thing. But in reality it is not the case. The specialty fields
vary from nation to nation, the division of specialties can
be sometimes blurry and can seem fairly arbitrary,
overlapping. It seems strange since medicine today is
very science based, and science itself is very international.
Doctors from all over the world try hard to exchange
knowledge and be cutting edge. But still the specialty
fields remain a bit different and not truly synchronized.
More standards and
synchronization means
better solutions.

4. In EU this problem has been addressed
already, there is a directive that makes the
European “master” division of specialties
and maps all the fields in its member
countries. It is the Directive 2005/36/EC
on the recognition of professional
qualifications and is in force since 2007.
The formal education of future doctors in
Europe will be synchronized with this
directive and national specialist tests
should become European one day.
Often specialty fields are core information
around which many processes evolve, so it
is good news that such harmonization is
taking place.
There are some fields that are empty in
the current Directive so it is far from
perfect – we may not know directly what
each specialization is called in each of the
EU countries. But still - a lot of work has
already been done and mapping EU to
other systems throughout the world is
easier then doing it for every country
separately.
More standards and synchronization
means better solutions that will be able
to work more and more seamlessly. And
this is one of the ways to reach user
engagement that has proven to be one
of the pitfalls of health IT solutions so far.
How come it
is like that?

5. Specialty fields in
different countries
The formal education of future doctors
in Europe will be synchronized with
Directive 2005/36/EC.

6. Česká republika
Hrvatska
Slovenija
Slovensko
Suomi/Finland
Tuberkulóza a respirační nemoci
Pulmologija
Pnevmologija
EU =
Respiratory
medicine
Pneumológia a ftizeológia
Keuhkosairaudet ja allergologia/
Lungsjukdomar och allergologi
Fields in different countries

7. SPECIALTY FIELDS AND
INTEROPERABILITY
by Matej Lukin