HealthManagement, Volume - 5 - Issue 1, 2006

This event follows the IHE 2004 Connectathon in Padova where 46 vendors participated with 78 systems that performed more than 550 tests on 14 IHE integration profiles.

 

Connectathon

The Connectathon facilitates the implementation of standards-based integration by the healthcare information systems and imaging equipment industry. It offers vendors a unique opportunity for connectivity testing, removing barriers to integration that would otherwise have to be dealt with on site. Participating companies prepare for the Connectathon using a suite of testing applications the MESA test tools developed for this purpose. During the Connectathon their 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 functions (called IHE Integration Profiles). During a Connectathon thousands of vendorto- vendor connections are tested, and tens of thousands of transactions are passed among the systems tested. The results for each participating company are made publicly available on the IHE Europe web site. Customers and Vendors can reference this site to obtain an objective assessment of any participating vendor support for these profiles. In addition, users are encouraged to contact these vendors (their IHE web pages are referenced on the IHE-Europe Web site) to obtain specific information about the IHE features of specific product releases in the form of IHE Product Integration Statements.

 

Workshop

February 7th to 10th 2005 in Noordwijkerhout,

The Netherlands

 

Connectathon

April 25th to 29th, 2005 in Noordwijkerhout,

The Netherlands

 

Registration

Registration form and Connectathon Participation rules are available through the IHEEurope web page (http://www.ihe-europe.org. There is a Connectathon participation fee of 1.600 euro for the first system and 1.200 euro for the second system, plus 2.200 euro for all additional systems, irrespective of the number of IHE Actors and profiles supported. Separate fees may be required for participation in the demonstrations.

 

Coverage

The Connectathon will cover the Radiology, Laboratory, Cardiology and IT Infrastructure domains and will prepare for the ground for the following demonstrations:

• ESC Meeting in Stockholm – September 2005

• DRK, Wiesbaden – May 2005

• UKRC Manchester - June 2005

• JFR Paris - October 2005.

• Medica, Duesseldorf– November 2005

Additional demonstrations may be announced later.

The technical framework and the supplements for the domains can be downloaded from the IHE-Europe web pages.

 

Conference and Participants Workshop

A workshop was held February 7th-10th. It provided all interested parties (healthcare providers, vendors, healthcare authorities, etc) with a solid understanding of the IHE process. Day one provided an overview of IHE, its processes and organization as well as benefits and accomplishments. The second and third days presented (in parallel) the current integration solutions specified by IHE (in the form of 27 integration profiles). The fourth day was reserved for IHE vendor participants to prepare for the Connectathon and organize the various national and European demonstrations. Connectathon participants were strongly encouraged to take advantage of this conference to educate and inform business managers and technical staff. Participation on the fourth day was restricted to registered Connectathon participants.

 

Location

The Connectathon will be held close to Noordwijk (beach of Amsterdam), south of Amsterdam and north of The Hague, surrounded by Holland's famous tulip fields.

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