IHE Connectathon unites IHE with emerging standards and technologies through mHealth Plug-A-Thon and Devices on FHIR events
Cleveland, OHIO (February 17, 2017) - Building on its reputation as the premier testing venue for standards-based interoperability, the IHE North American (NA) Connectathon 2017 launched several activities designed to unite the efforts of IHE with the industry’s latest technology advances focused on mHealth apps, APIs, and HL7 FHIR®. The 19th annual IHE North American Connectathon was held Jan. 23-27 at the Huntington Convention Center and HIMSS Innovation Center in Cleveland. New this year, the mHealth Plug-A-Thon and Devices on FHIR gave developers the opportunity to learn how to develop innovative technologies leveraging IHE Profiles.
“The inaugural mHealth Plug-A-Thon event was the first of its kind to bring together different health IT realms to raise awareness and provide the opportunity to test out connectivity at a technical level,” said John Donnelly, president, IntePro Solutions, Inc. “There is no better place to enable this type of activity than at the IHE NA Connectathon, which has the highest concentration of software engineers and health IT products onsite.”
Devices on FHIR was an industry event bringing key players to the table, including HL7, Continua, IHE USA and IHE International. Collaboratively these organizations can work together to ensure semantically consistent patient device data is exchanged across the continuum of care.
The IHE NA Connectathon and its rigorous process make testing, troubleshooting, and assessing interoperability of health IT systems easy.
IHE Connectathon participants appreciate the collaborative environment and accessibility to the industry’s hundreds of software engineers with expertise in standards and interoperability. Tara Dragert, director of product innovation at Surescripts, said, “We send a team of engineers to the IHE Connectathon every year, and they are able to collaboratively interact with other engineers. It’s great (for them) to be able to walk across the room and find parties to test with, troubleshoot, and get immediate feedback on their software development.” Surescripts, a leading health information network, operates within the nationwide Carequality Interoperability Framework, which is built on a framework which includes IHE Profiles. The Surescripts National Record Locator Service supports care delivery for more than 230 million patients by facilitating 4 billion interactions between those patients and members of their care teams.
At this year’s IHE NA Connectathon, 99 systems were tested and 444 individuals from 68 organizations participated. Preparation for the HIMSS Interoperability ShowcaseTM was also conducted onsite in advance of the demonstration at the 2017 HIMSS Conference & Exhibition, Feb. 19-23, in Orlando, FL:. Nineteen use cases of standards-based exchange will be featured at the Showcase this year.
“The IHE Connectathon is a true celebration of advances in interoperability,” said Joyce Sensmeier, president, IHE USA. “Over the years, I have seen participants make extraordinary efforts to attend because the experience is so valuable to them. The IHE Connectathon provides an opportunity to test connectivity, to get interoperable products ready for market, and to gain the training and experience the networking required to innovate.”
About IHE USA
IHE USA (www.iheusa.org) is a 501.c.3 not for profit founded in 2010. Its vision is to improve the quality, value, and safety of healthcare by enabling rapid, scalable, and secure access to health information at the point of care. IHE USA operates as a national deployment committee of IHE International in order to advance its mission to improve U.S. healthcare by promoting the adoption and use of IHE and other world-class standards, tools, and services for interoperability. IHE USA engages all levels of public and private sector participants to test, implement, and use standards-based solutions for all health information needs.
Media Contact:
Joyce Lofstrom/HIMSS North America
312-915-9237 – jlofstrom@himss.org
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