IHE Patient Care Coordination (PCC)

The Patient Care Coordination (PCC) domain was established in 2005 to deal with integration issues that cross providers, patient problems or time. It deals with general clinical care aspects such as document exchange, order processing, and coordination with other specialty domains. PCC also addresses workflows that are common to multiple specialty areas and the integration needs of specialty areas that do not have a separate domain within IHE.

The PCC Domain is sponsored by:

HIMSS (Health Information Management Systems Society)
ACP (American College of Physicians)

IHE Patient Care Coordination Profiles

Integration profiles defined by the PCC Techncial Committee are published in the IHE PCC Technical Framework available here. Brief descriptions of these profiles are available here and more detailed summaries are available here.

To see what the PCC committees have planned for the future, see the roadmap

How does this process work? What's going on now?

Like other IHE domains, PCC follows an 18-month cycle as follows:

When	Who	Event
November	Planning Committee	Annual PCC Planning Meeting This is where the roadmap is updated, and draft proposals are reviewed. The Planning Committee submits the roadmap and proposals to the Technical Committee for review and scoping. Bring your new ideas here (use the draft proposal template). This is where a profile is born.
December	Technical Committee	Roadmap and draft proposal review for scoping.
December	Joint Planning/Technical Committee	Review, Clarify, and Re-prioritize profile proposals.
December	Planning Committee	Proposal edits and submission of final profile proposal to the technical committee. Technical Committee memebers then work to write profile offline.
May	Technical Committee	Review and Final edits to profile "draft for public comment" and submit for review. Developers and Planning Committee begin submitting comments.
June	Developers, Marketing, Technical, Planning Committee	Educational Workshop. This is an overview of IHE. Profiles are described to Developers and Developers are encouraged to consider implementing new profiles.
July	Developers, Planning Committee	Profile draft comment period ends. Technical Committee begins editing.
July	Developers	Connectathon registration begins. This is the developers intent to implement profiles.
August	Technical Committee	Makes final edits and publishes "profile draft for trail implementation"
September	Developers	Connectathon registration ends.
October	Developers, Technical, Planning Committee	HIMSS Showcase Participant Workshop. Here, Developers/Vendors that plan to show their implementation at HIMSS learn how the HIMSS Interoperability Showcase will work.
October	Tooling	Connectathon MESA tests available.
December	Developers	MESA tool tests due.
January	All	IHE North America Connectathon
Feburary	Selected Developers	HIMSS Interopability Showcase
April	All	IHE Europe Connectathon
April	Developers	Comment period for "Draft for Trial Implementation" closes.
July	Technical Committee	Incorporate draft for Trial Implementation and comments into Technical Framework. Planning Committee updates the website.

Note that there are overlaping processes because profiles from the prior year are being implemented, tested and updated while new profiles are being added.

For exact times and dates, please see the IHE Calendar

How do I Participate?

As a Clinician / Patient Advocate
Get involved in the planning committee. This is where the clinical problems are discussed and prioritized. The planning committee is an open group and is interested in having your input! Bring us your interoperability problems! You can also help by participating in the himss showcase scenario definitions.

You can do this by:

Send us a note saying you’re interested so we can get you on the list-serves.
Come to face to face meetings, and attend the telephone conferences.
Submit your profile proposals by:
- Fill out this template.
- Submit the propsal draft to us.
- Attend the november planning meeting to help clarify and prioritize your proposal
- Follow up by submitting a the formal proposal
- Attend the joint planning/technical meeting to explain your idea to the technical committee

Any additional resources you can provide toward the problem will help prioritize getting your proposal solidified more quickly.

As a Hospital Administrator
In addition to getting involved in the planning committee, hold your vendor accountable. put a statement in your rfp that indicates you want the vendor to support the actor in the profile you desire.

As an Implementer
Get involved in the Technical Committee. Help make sure profiles are feasible and will work for you. Implement the profile, and come experience the Connectathon.