Meet our new member: Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise Europe (IHE-Europe)
Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise Europe (IHE-Europe) is an initiative by 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 and HL7 to address specific clinical needs in support of optimal patient care. Systems developed in accordance with IHE communicate with one another better, are easier to implement, and enable care providers to use information more effectively (see IHE International).
In Europe, IHE activities are supported by IHE-Europe, a non-profit organisation that promotes the IHE concepts in Europe, encourages the setting up of IHE Deployment Committees at national level, and organises, together with the national deployment committees, testing activities like the yearly IHE-Europe Connectathon.
IHE-Europe focuses on various areas of health mainly known as IHE Domains including: IT Infrastructure (ITI), Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PaLM), Patient Care Coordination (PCC), Pharmacy, Radiology and others.
IHE-Europe has developed a number of profiles, 27 of which have been endorsed by the European Commission. These 27 profiles are designed to support the implementation of specific healthcare interoperability scenarios, and are intended to facilitate the exchange of information between different healthcare systems and providers.
The ECHAlliance Community will enable IHE-Europe to work with other organisations in the connected health ecosystem to promote the use of interoperable solutions and help shape the future of connected health in Europe. As a member, IHE-Europe expects to have access to a network of organisations and individuals working on connected health projects and to be able to share its expertise and learn from others. This will help promote the IHE Profiles and be a valuable reference for interoperability solutions.
