Ĉu vi parolas Esperanton?: Building a common language for interoperable patient care

In 1887, Polish eye doctor L. L. Zamenhof created a new language: Esperanto. It was designed to be neutral and easy to learn, perfect for fostering peace and international collaboration. In the early 20th century, it was used for just that. Activists from Japan, China, India, and Vietnam came together and spoke Esperanto to exchange ideas and fight for international independence. It worked because each person only needed to learn one language, instead of four (or more!) Esperanto may not have taken off, but the principle of a lingua franca has never been more important in healthtech. As hospitals take on more and more software, the risk of silos grows. Standards, RFP requirements and shared data expectations are good guardrails, but ask anyone working in hospital IT, and you'll quickly find that adherence is not what it needs to be. With so many of the biggest players not incentivised commercially to share, how can we create a world where every system is talking the same language?