WEDI Spring 2026 Conference

WEDI Spring Conference, May 11-14 on Zoom (100% virtual)

The 2026 WEDI Spring Conference is a 3.5-day virtual spotlight on best practices, lessons learned, and emerging trends shaping the future of health care IT. Bringing together leaders from across the health care ecosystem—payers, providers, vendors, standards organizations, and government—WEDI continues its mission of driving strong public-private collaboration to advance administrative automation and health information exchange. 

This year’s program explores how policy becomes practice through CMS-0057-F implementation and prior authorization modernization, the evolving interoperability landscape powered by HL7®, FHIR®, and Da Vinci initiatives, and the critical role of privacy, security, and trust in a connected world. Sessions will also highlight emerging innovation, patient access and transparency, digital equity, AI, and real-world implementation stories, alongside updates on new and revised standards, operating rules, and WEDI-led initiatives. 

Designed to be idea-focused and conversation-driven, the conference offers actionable insights and practical guidance to help organizations prepare for what’s next in healthcare IT. 

Early bird pricing is available now—save 20% on all registration rates through April 3.

May 11, WEDI Workgroup Day

WEDI Workgroups are the engine behind the organization’s collaborative impact. Every day, WEDI members volunteer their time and expertise to participate in workgroups that bring together diverse perspectives from across the health care ecosystem. Through structured discussion, analysis, and consensus-building, these groups address real-world challenges in the exchange of clinical and administrative health information.

Workgroup participants collect and evaluate industry input, share practical experiences, and develop recommendations and work products that help drive alignment, reduce administrative burden, and advance interoperability. The outcomes of this work often inform policy discussions, support standards development, and provide actionable guidance that organizations can apply today. By fostering open dialogue and pragmatic problem-solving, WEDI workgroups continue to inspire meaningful, far-reaching change across the health care IT landscape.

WEDI Workgroups will schedule meetings open to all conference participants on May 11. Attend as many as you wish, and learn more about the work that takes place. 

PLEASE WELCOME: RACHEL DUNSCOMBE, CEO, HL7

Rachel Dunscombe serves as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at HL7 International. Prior to joining HL7, she was the CEO of openEHR International, a global non-profit organization providing global open standards for healthcare data. A Certified Healthcare CIO (CHCIO), Rachel brings extensive experience in digital health leadership, policy and workforce development.
Rachel has held significant leadership roles across the global healthcare landscape. She spent over five years as the CEO of the NHS Digital Academy, where she spearheaded the upskilling of digital leaders across the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, working with Imperial College London, the University of Edinburgh and Harvard Medical School. Additionally, Rachel led the International ARCH Collaborative for KLAS Research, driving global insights into electronic health record usability and clinician satisfaction.
Rachel’s strategic expertise has been utilized at the highest levels of government, where she provided advisory services to the UK Secretary of State for Health and served on the UK AI Council. Operationally, Rachel is the former Director of Digital and CIO for the Salford Royal/Northern Care Alliance (NCA) Group. Under her leadership in 2017, the group was recognized as the NHS’s most digitally mature organization. 

Rachel will speak on May 12 on shifting from standards development to scalable real-world implementation, addressing variability, aligning with CMS/ASTP, and how HL7 can leverage their standard to support AI and automation while actually reducing the burden on implementers, rather than adding to it

THE STATE OF INTEROPERABILITY TODAY: HOW EHRs ARE ENABLING CMS-0057F

CMS-0057-F is accelerating interoperability from policy ambition to operational reality, with EHRs now squarely responsible for enabling scalable prior authorization, payer-provider workflows, and meaningful patient access. In this session, leaders from major EHR platforms will share what’s live at scale versus still in pilots, where interoperability is breaking down in real clinical workflows, and the biggest blockers to moving from point integrations to broad payer coverage without increasing burden. The discussion will also examine ecosystem readiness—how providers should assess payer and vendor performance, what governance models actually drive outcomes, and where WEDI can help establish practical standards, metrics, and playbooks to move the market forward.

Panel:

• Hans Buitendijk, Senior Director, Interoperability Strategy, Oracle Health
• Jason Vogt, Manager Development, APIs and Structured Documents, Meditech
• Sean Cotter, Software Developer, Epic
• Mohammad Chebli, VP of Interoperability, NextGen
• Gillian McCabe, Director, Product Development, Authorization Management, athenehealth

AGENDA COMING SOON