Connectathons
Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) Connectathons have long been viewed as a staple of technical interoperability testing around the world. A key benefit of Connectathons is the ability to provide objective evaluation of technical specifications and to demonstrate solution portability and encapsulation.
IHE Integration Profiles are tested at Connectathons. These profiles are use-case based implementation guides built on established standards, including HL7® FHIR®, DICOM®, W3C and others. Profiles are implemented in care settings and health information exchanges around the world and describe and clarify how to use standards in an unambiguous way to solve a particular interoperability challenge.
Connectathons represent a high quality, technical conformity assessment event (quality label) where participants prove that their products have implemented industry grade integration profiles (standardized pieces of core interoperability) and that their products can successfully carry out data exchanges with other systems (concepts of plug & play). Successful participation in a Connectathon allows vendors to proudly and confidently represent their product(s) as conformed to published interoperability patterns. It also offers system integrators and health data custodians the opportunity to design data infrastructures and distribution networks with standardized capabilities conformed to by vendors.
It is much easier to design a complex eco-system from standardized pieces of functionality than it is to describe every single aspect of systems in isolation. Just like the most complex electronic systems are built from catalogs of discrete elements, integration profiles break down the complexity into manageable pieces of core functionality. System integrators, who are responsible for designing strategies and architectures that deliver interoperability ecosystems, can use this approach in their system design.
Projectathons
Projectathons are testing events that are dedicated to a specific project that uses a set of IHE profiles in their interoperability specifications. Typically, these events are organized for specifications under development or specifications focused on a limited realm (e.g., national or regional implementation). Similar to Connectathons, Projectathons bring together vendors to test and collaborate on specific use cases. The key difference between a Connectathon and Projectathon is that the outcome of the Projectathon does not result in a conformance stamp of approval for products. The intent of Projectathons is to accelerate product development, bring developers and implementers together and help identify and bridge difficult conditions in specification development to ensure development choices support interoperability and efficient business and clinical workflows.
Testing Platform
Testing for Connectathons and Projectathons make use of the IHE Gazelle testing platform. The platform allows vendors to test and prove that their products align with the published specifications. This platform has been used to support quality testing in IHE Connectathons for over 15 years worldwide.
Participation Lifecycle
A Projectathon is an important step and a best-practice approach in testing and validation of a specification package, where implementers collaborate to test their solutions using methodology and tools that accelerate interoperability. A Projectathon provides an opportunity for participants to test their systems among themselves and against a reference environment. It is also an opportunity to collaborate among peers to enable hands-on knowledge exchange.
Canada's First Projectathon - March 21-23, 2022
The objective of the first pan-Canadian Projectathon was to test and improve the quality of the pan-Canadian Patient Summary Interoperability Specifications (PS-CA Specifications) to ensure they are implementable, testable and meet expectations. The PS-CA supports several implementation patterns including MHD and a new Canadian National integration profile called CA:FeX. The CA:FeX supports saving and retrieving clinical data to and from a central document repository.
The aims of the Projectathon were to identify potential issues in the basic specifications, give implementers a chance to test their implementations in live environments, and strengthen implementation guidelines and standards in the health sector. This was held as a preliminary event before any conformity assessment, quality label or certification process.
For details about the Projectathon agenda, daily reports and session webinars, please visit the Schedule: Projectathon 2022 page.
The pan-Canadian Projectathon - Final Report provides details about the Projectathon proceedings, including notable highlights, participant feedback, lessons learned, and opportunities for improvement.
Browse or Download the report here:
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