Explore Opportunities to Improve Health IT Workflows at IHE USA Plug-a-thon

6 years 4 months ago

By: John T Donnelly, MS, MBA, CPHIMS
IHE USA Program Manager, Plug-a-thons
President, IntePro Solutions Inc.


The automation of the patient’s health record has seen considerable procedural and technological changes from its commencement in the late 20th century.  Many of these changes result from the evolution of health IT products and clinical workflows that leverage them. Organizationally, the healthcare ecosystem has also seen the evolution of new players on the scene.  These key players enable and support the medical information exchange paradigm including health information organizations (HIOs), health information service providers (HISPs), and legacy service units that spin off into more cost-effective and operationally efficient independent businesses, such as imaging centers.

The introduction of health information exchange (HIE) into the mainstream of clinical workflow brings increased complexity to health IT purchasing decisions and the advent of formal product-testing and certification initiatives. These initiatives aid this decision process with published validations of a product’s capabilities.

IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise) has been a leading contributor for health IT product validation and interoperability. As a leader in the US, IHE USA has been carefully watching innovative technology developments that have the power to change the healthcare community, including:

  • Devices on FHIR®
  • Internet of Things – Medical
  • Blockchain – Healthcare
  • mHealth

IHE has recognized the impact that new technology and standards must be considered for integration into, or disruption of, existing healthcare operations.

Plug-a-thons added to the Testing Continuum

To propel this effort forward, IHE USA is launching a Plug-a-thon event with several tracks focused on new, emerging technologies. Plug-a-thons extend the continuum of testing activities to explore and validate the industry’s potential use and ultimately conformance assessment to these information technology standards or profiles.  The main differentiator for a Plug-a-thon is its primary objective to explore the potential for new technology to improve healthcare workflows before a defined standard or profile is established, thus rapidly moving the innovative forward.

Let’s explore the full continuum of testing venues for health IT and their unique characteristics.

 

Tracks in IHE North American Plug-a-thon 2018

Four Plug-a-thon tracks have been identified for inclusion at the IHE North American (NA) Connectathon 2018 the industry’s largest interoperability testing event in Cleveland, Ohio on Jan. 15-19, 2018. Each track will explore and create new capabilities for products to interoperate with each other within or across IT realms of the healthcare ecosystem. Learn more about each track and how you can register to advance health IT innovation.

Devices on FHIR®: Jan. 16-17, 2018
The Devices on FHIR Plug-a-thon is in its second year and designed to ensure semantically consistent device information exchange whether achieved using current Patient Care Devices (PCD) HL7 Version 2-based messaging or HL7 FHIR®-based resources and profiles. Devices on FHIR is a collaborative effort that unites activities underway in HL7, Continua, IHE USA and IHE International.

New! Internet of Things - Medical: Jan. 16-17, 2018
The Internet of Things - Medical is a collaborative effort aimed to explore this new tier of connectivity grounded in the growing number of medical equipment, facility and resource management solutions promoting sensory information.  Real-time tracking of medical resources offers a wealth of possibilities to improve hospital operations and facility management.

New! Blockchain - Healthcare: Jan. 17-18, 2018
Explore and learn more about the new emerging connectivity solution that serves as the technological underpinning of the bitcoin phenomenon that creates continuous streams of healthcare information across the medical ecosystem.

mHealth: January 17-18, 2018
The mHealth Plug-a-thon is in its second year and will continue to connect the new, prolific generation mobile solutions including smartphone apps, internet cloud storage, and similar technologies, with today’s current source of healthcare data; the health systems, integrated delivery networks (IDNs), and health information exchanges (HIEs).   

Learn more about the IHE North American Connectathon and Plug-a-thon events by visiting the Plug-a-thon homepage

For information on how to become a sponsor and receive complimentary registration, contact jmyers@himss.org.

 

Questions?

We are glad to assist you as you. Please contact IHE USA at Connectathon@ihe.net or join the IHE USA Newsletter to stay connected with the latest IHE news and updates. 

 

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