The IHE Connectathon is a “Connectivity Test Marathon” that provides health IT companies the opportunity to test their products in a structured environment across a variety of domains including Radiology, Cardiology, Pathology, Patient Care Devices, Patient Care Coordination, Pharmacy, Laboratory, Dental and crucially IT Infrastructure, along with those of their peer vendors. Real world clinical scenarios following IHE Integration Profile specifications are used to ensure the testing environment is as close as possible to what vendors find in the market place.
More than 70 companies will join the Connectathon this year, bringing together more than 100 systems and over 300 participants for a full week of intensive testing, an increase over previous years showing how important interoperability is across the healthcare spectrum in Europe. Alongside the Connectathon, two Projectathons will take place: one is led by European Commission DG SANTE, where four participating countries and DG SANTE will test epSOS interoperability specifications, and the other Projectathon is testing the German hospital’s electronic case record specification (EFA) to which seven vendors are participating.
“We are very excited to organise this 16th Connectathon. The support of ZTG Centre for Telematics and Telemedicine and IHE-Germany was impressive and the success with strong participation of German companies here in Bochum is the proof that local relay is essential. We’re hosting two Projectathons (EFA and epSOS) in parallel to that event - it is also a first,” said Eric Poiseau, IHE-Europe’s Technical Coordinator of the Connectathon. “I would particularly like to thank all our volunteer Monitors, who have again made themselves available to be ready to judge test results. Without their presence it would be a very different event and one severely lacking their expertise”, he added.
Participating companies that successfully pass their testing requirements, will be recorded on the IHE Connectathon Results matrix, which is particularly important both to vendors and to the buying community across Europe, as part of their decision making process. This is especially in the light of recent European Commission recommendation about the use of a number of IHE Profiles in public procurements for healthcare IT systems. For systems that are commercially released the vendor can produce an IHE Integration Statement available in the IHE Product Registry.
The European IHE Symposium is also being held on Tuesday, April 12. The event organised by IHE-Europe and the co-organisers, ZTG Centre for Telematics and Telemedicine and IHE-Germany sees an outstanding programme with many top level speakers from the European Commission, industry specialists and Brigitte Zypries – Parliamentary State Secretary from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.
IHE-Europe Connectathon has been running for 16 years and next year’s will take place in Venice, Italy, on April 3-7, 2017.
For more information on the IHE-Europe Connectathon 2016 please visit the website or have a look at the IHE-Europe Connectathon White Paper.
About IHE-Europe
The mission of IHE-Europe is to improve patient care by advancing the interoperability of healthcare IT systems and the appropriate sharing of relevant information. Towards that end, IHE-Europe conducts education, testing, demonstrations and other activities promoting the deployment within Europe of systems compliant with the IHE Technical Frameworks developed by IHE International. IHE-Europe also recruits healthcare professionals and solution developers to participate in the development of these specifications and promote their appropriate use in Europe. IHE-Europe interacts with relevant governmental and non-governmental organisations in Europe. It also maintains close contacts with similar initiatives around the world.
About IHE-Services
IHE-Services is the operational unit of IHE-Europe dedicated to the fulfilment of its mission. It is a professional testing team supporting IHE-Europe’s members and beneficiaries that want to build trust in the deployment of IHE Profiles in their solutions and projects. Services provided are the development of customised validation and conformance test tools, organisation of test sessions and demonstrations, training and consultancy on implementation of the IHE Profiles in beneficiary’s projects / programs. Beneficiaries are national or regional e-health projects, IT users in hospitals or vendors developing new products. IHE-Services offers a unique suite of tools and services used during the Connectathons worldwide.
About IHE-Germany
Since 2004, IHE-Germany is a registered not-for-profit organisation in Germany. It stipulates the usage of IHE Profiles in Germany by supporting more than 60 members (44 companies and organisations + 17 individual members) in the implementation of these Profiles in their products and solutions. In a strong partnership with the healthcare IT vendors association (bvitg) and the German medical research platform (TMF), IHE-Germany develops national addendums and cooperates with national affiliates of several SDOs. They also consult national and federal organisations regarding the adoption of interoperability in healthcare IT.