IHE North America: 2007-2008 Testing and Demonstration Process

• Key Dates
• Workshop
• IHE Connectathon
• MESA Test Tools
• IHE-North America Demonstrations
• IHE Integration Statements
• IHE Committees

The IHE testing process provides coordination, tools and an opportunity for face-to-face interoperability testing for vendors of imaging and information systems who wish to implement IHE integration capabilities.

Each year the sponsors of IHE in North America issue an open call to all qualified vendors to apply for participation in this process. The process culminates in an interoperability testing event, the Connectathon. The North America 2008 Connectathon takes place January 28-February 1, 2008 in Chicago, IL. There will be related IHE demonstration events at the HIMSS 2008 and RSNA 2008 annual meetings.

An workshop for IHE users and potential participants, Changing the Way Healthcare Connects, was held June 11-13, 2007 in Oak Brook, IL. The workshop focused on IHE's role in improving information technology in various care settings and in realizing the vision of a connected health system. More than 150 vendors, public health experts, consultants and healthcare providers took part in sessions on participating in and leveraging the IHE initiative.  Further information, including slide presentations from these sessions, is available at www.ihe.net/participation/iheworkshop2007.cfm .

The centerpiece of the IHE testing process is the Connectathon, a week-long interoperability testing event. The Connectathon allows participating companies to test their implementation of IHE capabilities with corresponding systems from industry peers. During the event their systems exchange information with systems from multiple vendors, performing all of the transactions required for the roles they have selected, called IHE Actors, in support of defined clinical functions, called IHE Integration Profiles.

The next IHE North America Connectathon will be held in January 2008 in Chicago, IL. A recap of the 2007 North American Connectathon, including presentations from the first-ever Connectathon conference, can be found at www.ihe.net/Connectathon/ihena2007.cfm.

Documented results of previous connectathons can be found at http://ihe.univ-rennes1.fr/con_result/.

Another important element of the IHE testing process is the set of software tools HIMSS and RSNA have commissioned. Developed by the Electronic Radiology Laboratory at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University of St. Louis, the MESA tools are designed for use by participating companies in implementing IHE capabilities in their systems and preparing for the Connectathon. Their purpose is to provide communication partners, test data and test plans to allow organizations to provide a baseline level of testing as they implement the IHE Technical Framework. These tools are made available to participants during the period of an IHE demonstration year and are then released into the public domain at the end of that cycle. The latest version of the MESA Test Tools available in the public domain can be found here.

The sponsoring organizations of IHE in North America, the American College of Cardiology (ACC), Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), regularly host demonstrations of IHE capabilities at their annual conferences.

IHE Image Sharing Demonstration at RSNA 2007
Nov. 25 - 30, 2007
McCormick Place, Chicago, IL

IHE Interoperability Showcases at HIMSS 2008
Feb. 24 - 28, 2008
Orlando, FL

IHE Integration Statements are documents prepared and published by vendors to describe the intended conformance of their products with the IHE Technical Framework. They identify the specific IHE capabilities a given product is designed to support in terms of the key concepts of IHE: Actors and Integration Profiles. Links to company Web pages that include Integration Statements can be found here.

Vendors wishing to develop IHE Integration Statements to communicate the integration capabilities of their systems are invited to use the form linked here. The form includes important qualifications and instructions for publishing: please read and use it carefully.

The IHE Planning and Technical committees are composed of representatives of qualified vendors of systems directly involved in the integration scope of the IHE demonstrations. Participation on these committees is open to all qualified personnel, but requires a full commitment to a rigorous schedule of meetings and assignments. Secretarial and logistical support for the committees is provided by the sponsoring organizations, currently RSNA and HIMSS. A calendar of committee activities is available at http://www3.rsna.org/calendar/index.cfm?mg_id=1.

The Planning Committee is responsible for establishing the broad direction and scope for the demonstrations and related integration activities. In addition to agreeing on and publishing the demonstration scope, it holds responsibility for planning vendor workshops and other outreach activities.

The Technical Committee develops the scope outlined by the Planning Committee into the detailed IHE Technical Framework. In addition to developing this document, committee members provide liaison to the Technical Project Manager and vendors participating regarding how to implement it in preparing for the demonstrations.

The IHE Strategic Development Committee is composed of representatives of professional specialties and organizations from across the entire spectrum of care. Its overall goal is to promote the expansion of the IHE process for implementing standards-based information sharing across the healthcare enterprise. Committee members work to expand the IHE model by:

• Identifying steps in patient care workflow
• Recommending priorities of clinical and operational domains
• Identifying integration needs and barriers within and across domains
• Identifying key resources and helping to populate IHE planning committees in key domains