IHE provides a detailed implementation and testing process to promote the adoption of standards-based interoperability by vendors and users of healthcare information systems. The process culminates in the Connectathon, a weeklong interoperability-testing event.
The Connectathon provides the most detailed validation of the participants' integration work. Participating companies prepare for the event using testing software—the MESA test tools—developed for this purpose.
During the Connectathon systems exchange information with complementary systems from multiple vendors, performing all of the transactions required for the roles they have selected, called IHE Actors, in support of defined clinical use cases, called IHE Integration Profiles. Thousands of vendor-to-vendor connections have been tested overall, and tens of thousands of transactions passed among the systems tested.
The Connectathon offers vendors a unique opportunity for connectivity testing—removing barriers to integration that would otherwise have to be dealt with on site, at the customer's expense. Companies taking part have responded overwhelmingly that the IHE process addresses important issues in their product development plans.
Each year IHE holds a comprehensive, multi-domain Connectathon in North America, including systems from cardiology, IT infrastructure, laboratory, patient care coordination, patient care devices and radiology. The following companies participated in the 2007 event:
IHE North America Connectathon 2007 Participants
Accenture
Acuo Technologies
AGFA Healthcare
Allscripts Healthcare Solutions
Axolotl Corp.
B. Braun Medical
Biosense Webster Inc.
BlueWare, Inc.
BRIT Systems, Inc.
Canon Medical Systems
CapMed
Carestream Health (formely known as Kodak)
Cedara Software
CGI-AMS
CPSI
Draeger Medical Systems, Inc.
Dynamic Imaging
EBM Technologies
Eclipsys Corporation
Emageon
Epic Systems Corporation
Fujifilm
GE Healthcare
Goodman Co., Ltd.
Hitachi Medical Corporation
Hologic
Hx Technologies
INFINITT
Initiate Systems, Inc.
InSiteOne | International Business Machines
Konica Minolta Medical & Graphic, Inc.
Live Data
Lumedx Corp
McKesson Information Solutions
MedCommons Inc.
Medical Informatics Engineering
MediNotes Corporation
MedQuist
Misys Healthcare Systems
MNI Medicos Na Internet
Mortara Instrument, Inc.
National Digital Medical Archive
NextGen
No More Clipboard
Philips Medical Systems
Practice Partner
QuadraMed
Quovadx
RADinfo Systems
Sectra Imtec AB
SIEMENS Medical Solutions
Softmedical
St. Jude Medical AB
Stryker
Tiani-Spirit Gmbh
Toshiba Medical Systems
Vital Images, Inc
Welch Allyn, Inc
Xwave and Bell Canada |
Test results from Connectathons in North America and Europe dating back to 2001 can be viewed at ihe.univ-rennes1.fr/con_result/. Connectathon test results are not to be understood as comprehensive information about the integration capabilities of the participating companies' products. Rather, they attest to these companies' ability to conform to interoperability standards described in IHE Integration Profiles in carefully supervised testing.
To interpret the results presented in this table it is important to understand the concepts of IHE Actors and Integration Profiles described at www.ihe.net/resources/ihe_integration_profiles.cfm. Also note that results listings for many companies include links to IHE Integration Statements for their products. The intended purpose and use of these documents is described at www.ihe.net/resources/ihe_integration_statements.cfm.
