Connectathon 2014

IHE has been organising the Connectathon in Europe for the past 14 years. In 2014 the choice of venue fell to Vienna, where vendors of more than 110 IT companies met. IHE is an initiative by healthcare professionals and industry for standardising the exchange of medical data. The IHE-Europe Connectathon thus offers IT companies a unique opportunity to exchange information and to test IHE profiles with each other.

Swisscom took part at the Connectathon for the first time in April 2014, making use of the opportunity to test and verify the newly implemented IHE Document Consumers profiles with a range of software partners. A profile is considered verified if at least 3 parties can demonstrate in controlled tests under the supervision of the IHE that the tested profiles are implemented in accordance with the technical recommendations of the IHE.

Over the 5 days of the event Swisscom had the opportunity to successfully verify the IHE conformity of the following profiles: CT (Consistent Time), ATNA (Audit Trail and Node Authentication), PIXV3 (Patient Identity Cross Reference Source & Consumer) and XDS.b (Cross-Enterprise Document Sharing – Consumer), allowing it to make a decisive step towards the standardisation of electronic data exchange in the healthcare sector - as well as to conform with the eHealth Suisse recommendations regarding software standards and architecture.

Yet the development is by no means complete. The implementation of additional profiles is already planned. This includes the implementation of the XDS.b Document Provider - which not only allows documents to be read but also new documents to be stored in an electronic patient file as well as the implementation of the Consent Provider - which allows fine grain access rights in IHE compliant communities to take account of patients' wishes.

Swisscom implements the eHealth Suisse recommendations for software standards and architecture. They will also be applied to the planned steps for importing and exporting the electronic vaccination card to allow for the exchange format of the electronic vaccination record electronic vaccination record and, in particular, implementation of the recommended rules for control of access rights.