The Connectathon IHE s Conformance Testing Process Presented by

The Connectathon: IHE’s Conformance Testing Process Presented by: Mike Nusbaum & Mike Glickman IHE Interoperability Showcase Planning Committee January 16 th, 2007

Simplifying Interoperability 2

Objective and Agenda • What is the Connectathon? • To provide a high-level understanding of the Connectathon processes, and their value within the context of IHE • To describe what is currently happening on the Connectathon floor • To prepare you for a tour of the Connectathon floor, immediately following this presentation… 3

A Phenomenon… 4

Did you know… • The first Connectathon – held in 1999 in Chicago – 23 vendors, 47 applications tested • The 2007 North American Connectathon boasts: – – 77 vendors registered (up from 55 in 2006) Over 150 individual applications being tested Over 350 engineers working collaboratively to test interoperability 52 integration profiles are being tested, many of which are new in 2007 – 1000’s of vendor-vendor connections; 10, 000’s of transactions – Represents many 1000’s of hours of effort by sponsors, vendors, staff • 51 Vendors applied to promote their success at the 2007 Interoperability Showcase at HIMSS 5

Proven Standards Adoption Process Develop technical specifications Testing at Connectathons Identify available standards (e. g. HL 7, Products with IHE DICOM, IETF, OASIS) Document Use Case Requirements IHE Demonstrations Timely access to information Easy to integrate products 6

Scenes from Connectathon 2006 7

Conformance Testing enables Adoption 8

Encouraging Vendors to Implement IHE Profiles • Connectathon participation is open to all “software developers”, vendors, open source, providers • Interoperability Specification (IHE Profiles) set before users issue call for participation with deadline (applicants have to bid) • Vendors that implement IHE profiles assume strategic and marketing advantages • Vendors who pass the IHE Connectathon are given the opportunity to demonstrate IHE capabilities during major conferences (HIMSS, ACC, RSNA, etc. ) Many carrots, but one stick: be absent or failing 9

IHE Testing Process Users Testing Results Deploy Systems Testing Tools Sponsors: Project Management Team Develop Testing Tools Vendors Implement Profile Actors Sponsors: Exhibits Approves Test Logs Connectathon In-House Testing Product + Integration Statement Demonstration IHE Technical Framework (Profiles Specification) 10

What is a Connectathon? Cross-vendor, live, supervised, structured tests • All participating vendors’ products tested together in the same place/time • Experts from each vendor available for immediate problem resolution… fixes are done in minutes, not months!! • Each vendor tests with multiple trading partners (actual product to product) • Testing of real-world clinical scenarios with IHE Integration Profiles 11

Connectathon Testing is based on specifications laid out in the Technical Framework Part 1: Integration Profiles model the business process problem (use case) and its solution. Part 2: Transactions define in how current standards are used to solve the business problem defined in the Integration Profiles. Connectathon: Vendors register to test their product as an actor(s) within an Integration Profile 12

Connectathon: Managed Process • Structured testing supervised by Technical Project Management team • Real-time “dashboard” indicating tests in progress • Successful results recorded and available using automated tools • Successful results published by sponsors • Primary Purpose: foster adoption and quality of standards-based solutions in products • Secondary Purpose: preparation for demonstration events 13

Connectathon Results • Tool contains Connectathon results from 2001 to present • Part of the “KUDU” project management tool, developed in part by IHE Europe • Development underway to build a new PRODUCT REGISTRY. Adds specific vendors product implementations of Integration Profiles 14

Connectathons are global and more than once a year • IHE North America – January 2006 • IHE Asia – February 2006 • IHE Europe – April 2006 • IHE North America – October 2006 • IHE North America – January 2007 • IHE Asia – February 2007 • IHE Europe – April 2007 • …. . 15

MESA Testing Tools “Medical Environment Simulators and Analyzers” • Software and documentation distributed to vendors participating in the testing process • Each test performs functional testing of a single actor, in a specific profile, by simulating remaining actors • MESA tests must be successfully completed before the Connectathon 16

MESA Testing Tools • Primary developer: MIR, University of Washington • Other contributors: – – NIST, US Dept of Commerce: XDS tools OFFIS, Germany: DICOM Scope Health Infoway, Canada: XDS-I, PIX/PDQ/HL 7 v 3 INRIA, France: Lab HL 7 v 2. 5 • To be replaced by GAZELLE: a new testing tool architected to facilitate distributed testing (Collaborative world-wide development) 17

Connectathon Scorecard 18

What happens after the Connectathon? • Successful results (specific by IHE profile/actor) are published by the sponsors (www. ihe. net/connectahons) • Vendors self-certify, by publishing IHE Integration Statements: Precise and explicit public interoperability commitment fro a specific commercial product. • Only vendors who are successful are entitled to participate in Interoperability Showcase demonstrations: – – – HIMSS Annual Conference (February 26 th – March 1 st, New Orleans) ACC Annual Conference (March 24 th – 27 th, New Orleans) Canada e-Health 2007 Conference (May 27 th – 30 th, Quebec City) RSNA Annual Conference (November 25 th – 30 th, Chicago) others… 19

IHE Integration Statement 20

RFPs & Integration Statements • Be Brief ? – “The system must support HL 7” • Be Effective ? – “The system must support the following HL 7 V 2 messages according to the following 100 pages of specifications” • Be Both: – “The system must support IHE Patient Id Cross-reference as a Patient Identifier Source actor” • Integration Statement – Version 2. 1 of the Enterprise HIS supports IHE Patient Id Cross-referencing as Patient Identifier Source actor Requiring vendors to publish their products IHE Integration Statements provide a very effective pressure point for market-driven interoperability 21

RFP Language (actual example) 22

Connectathon Tour • You will be led by “docents” • There will be a number of “stopping points”, illustrating different aspects of the Connectathon • Staggered departure, in order to minimize disruption • Feel free to observe and listen, but respect the effort that is underway and refrain from disrupting the engineers at work! 23

Connectathon Floor Layout 24