CHICAGO Its been just one year since the last annual HIMSS/ACC Demonstration Participant Workshop, an event that embodies the positive direction of increased interest in and implementation of interoperable electronic health records (EHRs). Striving to better pave the road to EHR implementation, 42 companies representing 107 health information technology systems met on Oct. 19-20 in Schiller Park, Ill., a suburb of Chicago.

Sponsored by Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE), the two-day gathering continued the focus on the real-world of interoperability because these organizations will be part of the 2007 North America Connectathon at the Chicago Hyatt Hotel on January 15-19, 2007, plus two upcoming demonstration events in New Orleans, La.:

* 2007 Interoperability Showcase at the 2007 Annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Conference & Exhibition on Feb. 25-March 1, 2007

* American College of Cardiology Annual Conference on March 24-27, 2007


The HIMSS/ACC Demonstration Participant Workshop
During the workshop, vendor companies that will be part of these interoperability demonstrations worked on their detailed plans to test IHE integration profiles for the Connectathon and the clinical scenarios for the HIMSS and ACC events. Participants included often-competing organizations that came together to ensure the upcoming events have been designed to most effectively illustrate the value of EHR systems equipped with IHE profiles.

Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise
IHE creates a framework for interoperability to help pass patient health information across systems and across multiple healthcare settings. Three professional health organizations sponsor IHE: American College of Cardiology, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society and Radiological Society of North America. These organizations work together to identify and develop different applications of the IHE framework to facilitate the sharing of patient health data. IHE promotes the coordinated use of established standards such as DICOM and HL7 to address specific clinical needs in support of optimal patient care. Health information technology systems developed in accordance with IHE communicate with one another better, are easier to implement and enable care providers to use information more effectively. The October workshop and the 2007 North American Connectathon are part of the IHE process to bring participating companies and their products together to ensure that the applications work and can communicate before the two 2007 interoperability showcases.

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