It's been way to long...

It's been way to long since I issued one of these...

I write in XSLT.  It's an arcane language.  I work with HL7 Version 3.  It's also an arcane language.  I use the two together in ways that few would ever consider.  I know the ins and outs of these arcanities because of hard won experience.  I can teach that, but sometimes I just don't have time.  This has been especially true given my focus on new Meaningful Use regulations over the past month or so.  But sometimes, it's not my ability to teach, but rather, someone else's ability to learn that comes to the fore.  This is especially true for this next recipient.

This next award goes to a fellow I didn't really know until a couple of months ago, and who I really hadn't spent much time with until a few weeks ago.  He's been participating in Query Health.  He's been somewhat quiet, but apparently absorbing quite a bit.  I know from experience you have to watch those quiet ones. Then about a month ago the questions started showing up in my inbox.  I'd written a translator that took the XML that I2B2 uses to represent a query and turned it into HQMF.  It was sufficient for a demo at HIMSS, but needed additional work to support the rest of the ontology:

• How did you extract this?  Answered that one.  
• You know, when I looked at that, it is different.  I think we're going to need to do this.  
• You know that file you wrote... I made some changes to it so that it could support this other thing.  
• Two days later: Here's some more stuff I wrote, tell me what you think of it.  
• Next day, I think I understand this better, I made some more changes, can you look at this.  

And I feel bad because I'm still behind on responding to three of his e-mails.  Then we have a meeting, and I get to see what he's done.  It isn't perfect, but this guy doesn't seem to know HL7 RIM well and probably hadn't even heard of HQMF until he started on this project.  But thankfully, he's taken on a piece of work that I couldn't do for lack of time, and has done well -- quite well.

• Next day: OK, I fixed that stuff you told me about.
• Oh, here's another update --> He's added these three things and five more from this other space. (Look out, this one's a doer.  If you aren't careful, his code is going to be on the main line and yours will be the branch -- that might not be so bad).

Who is this guy?  I start looking around.  A very interesting mix.  What's really important is that he seems to dive in -- and succeed.  I have a gut feeling about this guy, he explores broadly, but thinks deep ... this is not someone I know well, but someone that I really would like to know much better.

This certifies that 

Jeff Klann of Partners

Has hereby been recognized for outstanding
contributions to Query Health.

If you don't know Jeff, he seems to be one of those people that has a career to be jealous of.  A little machine learning early in his career, a stint at MIT Media Lab (so jealous).  He's directed some plays, three in fact.  Looks like the NLP work he did in a clinical setting attracted him to Health IT.  He followed that up by a PhD in Health Informatics, and was an NLM Fellow (they don't give those out to anyone -- I'll bet I know his advisor).    He was doing cool stuff with CCD within a year of it's being released.