IHE wants to learn more about the experience of care sites in using integration profiles to improve the interoperability of health IT systems. We know that IHE profiles have been implemented in hundreds of healthcare IT products--and that those products are serving in healthcare institutions all over the world. We also know that national, regional and local health information exchanges (HIEs) in a number of countries are basing their architectures on IHE profiles. We want to learn more about what impact the use of IHE profiles is having on the capabilities and efficiency of healthcare IT systems in clinical settings and how they are impacting the efficiency and quality of care.
And we want to share your stories with healthcare providers worldwide. IHE will develop selected Success Stories into Web exhibits, poster exhibits for display at healthcare-related meetings worldwide, audiovisual presentations and other media.
Success Story Guidelines
The guidelines below outline the information we hope to collect and publish. Naturally we are interested in any measures of efficiency, performance or quality that care sites are able to gather showing the impact of changes enabled by IHE--so please feel free to suggest any metrics you can include in your submission.
Please do not let formatting or organization of materials be an obstacle to your submission. Feel free to assemble materials as convenient for you. For example, you can send word processed documents and images as email attachments. IHE representatives will produce the materials in an appropriate format and give you a chance to review the result before it is made public. If you have questions about the content or formatting of your submissions please contact the email address above.
IHE User Success Stories are intended to describe projects that have made use of the IHE Technical Framework and Integration Profiles to integrate systems within a healthcare institution or to share medical information across care settings in a health information exchange network. These exhibits should describe the anticipated operational and clinical effect of the integration project and provide details of the institution or network involved, including size, history and clinical informatics environment. Descriptions of the project should include the vendors and systems involved and the impact of IHE on such aspects as project planning and acquisition strategies, implementation and testing. A suggested checklist of relevant information follows:
- Institution or Health Information Exchange Network:
- Name and location of the healthcare institution or health information exchange (HIE) network. Include institutional logos and photos as appropriate.
- Names and contact information of key representatives of the institution or HIE responsible for the project
- Data on the size of the institution or network, such as patient population, care sites, patients treated annually, number of beds, annual exams, etc.
- Project Scope:
- Describe the clinical and operational problems addressed by the integration project.
- Describe the major health information systems involved in the project (eg,hospital information system, in-patient or ambulatory electronic health record, personal health record, department information systems such as cardiology, radiology, eye care, etc.)
- Project Approach:
- Is the project an upgrade of existing systems or acquisition of new systems (or both)?
- Which IHE Integration Profile(s) are implemented?
- Which IHE Actor(s) are implemented on each system?
- Which transactions defined in the IHE Technical Framework does each IHE actor perform?
- If appropriate, you may complete and submit a table and diagram like the samples provided below to reflect which IHE Actors,Integration Profiles and Options have been implemented.
- Provide the date on which the project was put into clinical use. If the project is a work in progress, provide the status of each Actor (for example, Acquisition Phase, Testing and Implementation Phase, Completed and in Clinical Use) and the projected date of completion for the whole project.
- Results: Provide any specific information available about the actual or anticipated impact of using IHE in the integration project. Wherever quantitative information is available, you are strongly encouraged to include it. Some possible categories of improvements include:
- Reduction in the time and costs associated with integrating systems
- Reduction in the number of lost or redone studies
- Improvements in the efficiency of medical staff
- Improvements in the efficient use of resources
- Improvement in the availability of medical information and turnaround time for diagnoses
- Reduction in medical errors
- Improvements in the quality of care
- Conclusions:
- A summary of the project outcomes
- Any related future plans.
Sample Integration Table and Diagram
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XDS
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Any Medical Systems Co./ EHR System
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Document Source/ Document Consumer
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none
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| Large IT Inc. |
Registry/Repository
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none
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PIX/PDQ
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Data Corp. Intl. /
Record Locator
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PIX/PDQ Manager
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none
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ATNA
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Medical Privacy Co./
Event Tracker
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Audit Repository
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none
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Sample Integration Diagram
Direct questions and submissions to marcomm@ihe.net.
