28 March 2011 - The eleventh annual IHE European Connectathon set for Pisa, Italy from April 11th to 15th, 2011 has rapidly expanded to a week-long program of activities that is attracting a critical mass of engineers and executives responsible for advancing e-health in Europe.
Satellite meetings and parallel workshops are gathering an unprecedented participation of national and regional e-health programs managers from across Europe, as well as international standards groups, and key opinion leaders for health IT.
The core activity remains the IHE-Europe Connectathon, an intensive ‘connectivity marathon’ where for five days in a vast, hard-wired hall more than 300 information technology engineers will test 117 systems for the interoperability of their applications used in health information systems.
This year for the first time a second testing event, called the Projectathon, will be run in parallel in an adjacent space. Informations systems from 13 European countries will be tested in a simulation of cross-border exchanges of patient summaries and electronic prescriptions in preparation for a large-scale pilot program later this year organized by Smart Open Services for European Patients (epSOS).
These hands-on, real-time testing activities have attracted diverse e-health organisations from across Europe, who for the first time will hold concurrent workshops and meetings, creating week-long opportunities for discussion, dialogue and networking.
The international standards organisation DICOM, the European interoperability group HITCH, and IHE-Europe will hold meetings with their respective members. Meanwhile workshops open to public participation will focus on interoperability for regional healthcare networks, integrating radiation dose histories into health records, and implementing large-scale telemedicine services. For program details, visit www.connectathon2011.org.
“After 10 years of steady progress, Connectathon is now seen as the right place at the right moment for people to share experiences on e-health implementations,” according to Peter Kuenecke, IHE-Europe vendor Co-Chair.
The meetings and testing events will be held at the Stazione Leopolda, a former railway station transformed into a multifunctional centre ideally suited for this pan-European gathering. For more information please visit the IHE-Europe website at www.ihe-europe.net.
IHE-Europe is the European organization of the international IHE organisation. ‘Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise’ (IHE) is a joint initiative of healthcare professionals and industry to improve the way computer systems in healthcare share information. IHE promotes the coordinated use of established standards such as DICOM, XML and HL7 to address specific clinical needs in support of optimal patient care. Systems developed in accordance with IHE specifications communicate with one another better, are easier to implement, and enable care providers to use information more effectively.
Press contact: Eric Poiseau, IHE-Europe Technical Project Manager Tel: +33 (0)2 99 84 74 58, technical.manager@ihe-europe.net
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