Are you living in a world of broken dashboards and unreliable data pipelines? You're not alone. For too long, data has been treated as a downstream problem, an afterthought to be dealt with by overworked data teams.
In this special deep dive, we're joined by Chad Sanderson and Mark Freeman of Gable AI to explore the solution: the Shift Left movement and Data Contracts. We break down how this new paradigm treats data as a first-class product, creating a clear, enforceable agreement between the data engineers who produce the data and the teams who consume it.
For our listeners in health tech, this conversation is especially critical. Think of the HL7® FHIR® standard itself as a powerful, industry-wide data contract. It defines the precise structure, terminology, and API rules for exchanging healthcare information. Applying a 'Shift Left' mindset means treating FHIR compliance not as a final validation checkpoint, but as a core requirement from the very beginning of the development process. By enforcing the 'contract' of FHIR at the source—before data ever leaves the EHR or clinical system we can build more reliable interoperable systems, reduce costly data errors downstream, and ultimately deliver better value and more effective AI solutions.
Tune in to learn:
* Why the modern, federated data stack broke our old processes.
* How to bridge the gap between software engineering and data teams.
* Practical steps to start implementing a "data as a product" culture that delivers real value to your clients.
Learn More: Our guests literally wrote the book on this! Check out Chad Sanderson's new O'Reilly book, "Data Contracts," for the complete guide. ADDITIONAL Reading
* Gable AI – Data Contracts: Data Contracts Book (Chad Sanderson & Mark Freeman)
* Shift Left Data Manifesto: Shift Left
* HL7 FHIR Overview: HL7.org FHIR Overview
* FHIR Contract Resource: FHIR Contract Definition
* FHIR Profiles / StructureDefinition: FHIR Profiling Guide
Technical Tools
* HL7 FHIR Validator: FHIR Validator CLI
* Gable Data Contract Examples: Example Contract Specs
* FHIR JSON Schema (useful bridge): FHIR JSON Schema
AI + Healthcare Context
* NCQA Digital Quality Ecosystem: NCQA Digital Measurement
* SMART on FHIR: SMART Health IT
FHIR Contracts App
* 🔧 FHIR Data Contract Generator (beta): appA playground to generate FHIR-based data contracts aligned with shift-left methodology.
