Bordeaux Connectathon on message

The tenth annual Integrating the Healthcare Exchange (IHE) European Connectathon, held last month in Bordeaux, France, has been hailed as a success with a record number of interoperability tests carried out.

One of the main developments at then event was several IHE profiles were endorsed for national programmes in several European countries where IHE national initiatives are active.

The annual Connectathon is the key date in the IHE-Europe calendar providing practical demonstration of interoperability in a pragmatic and concrete way.

At the April Bordeaux Connectathon, a total of 2,250 interoperability tests were carried out and of these 1,950 passed.

Some 80 profiles and 94 systems were tested in five domains (Radiology, Cardiology, ITInfrastructure, Laboratory and Patient Care Coordination) by 66 companies bringing together over 250 engineers.

For the first time, the Connectathon was entirely managed by Gazelle, the test management tool developed by IHE (http://gazelle.ihe.net/).

This annual event also provided the hub for meetings on international DICOM standards and ePharmacy together with a series of workshops on EU-funded projects such as epSOS, HITCH and Smart Personal Health Systems.

Besides industry and users, a number of prestigious participants attended, such as national and European institutions including the European Commission’s DG Information Society.

IHE-Europe co-chair Peter Kuenecke, said: "Looking at the 10-year history of the Connectathon, we have seen a significant shift from a testing platform to a true European Forum on interoperability.”

The 2011 Connectathon will be held at Leopolda Storica in Pisa from April 11 to 15.