IHE is an initiative lead by the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) and the Hospital Information Systems Society (HIMSS). GE Medical Systems is an active contributor to IHE and welcomes its objective to reduce the barriers to sharing clinical information in order to optimize patient care.
This initiative crosses the boundaries of modalities, corporate cultures and information systems. Initially focused on the integration of the radiology department into the healthcare enterprise, it plans to address in the future other departments such as Cardiology or Laboratory.
GE Medical Systems is fully committed to the IHE initiative and has actively participated in the Year 1 (1999) demonstration. This year, GE brings three new modalities to the IHE demo for the Year 2 demonstration at RSNA.
Successful Industry-Wide Collaboration
IHE relies on extensive cooperation and coordination among vendors committed to open solutions. A technical committee, consisting of representatives from the leading manufacturers, develops the technical specifications that are used in the IHE demonstrations at HIMSS and RSNA. Once proven this Technical Framework can be used to more effectively integrate HIS, RIS, PACS and modalities. The complexity of integrating diverse information systems requires a phased approach. This is why IHE is a five-year initiative that delivers increasing levels of integration.
IHE in 2000-2001
IHE Year 1 focused on the Scheduled Workflow Integration Profile in order to establish the continuity and integrity of basic radiological data. The IHE Technical Framework specifies a number of DICOM and HL7 transactions that maintain the consistency of patient and ordering information. In addition, it provides the scheduling and imaging acquisition procedure step management.
The Scheduled Workflow Integration Profile effects hospital-wide information systems that manage patient admission and ordering, radiology departmental information systems managing department scheduling (e.g. RIS), image management/archiving (e.g. PACS) and acquisition modalities.
This first IHE Integration Profile is a major achievement that can immediately benefit GE customers. Most of these IHE-defined connectivity features are already supported by many GE products (DICOM Image Storage, Query/Retrieve, Storage Commitment). These plus the new DICOM Performed Procedure Step are now available on the Signa MR/i and the CT LightSpeed scanners. These are the first two GE IHE compliant products.
IHE in 2001-2002
In its second year, IHE has introduced 6 additional integration Profiles. These new profiles provide a broad set of capabilities that will bring major efficiency improvements. These 6 Integration Profile are demonstrated at RSNA (November 2000) and HIMSS (February 2001) where GE is actively participating with four systems: MR Signa MR/i, CT LightSpeed QX/i, Nuclear eNTEGRA and a Radworks workstation
To learn more about IHE
Consult the RSNA IHE Web site, http://www.rsna.org/IHE and download two key documents:
IHE Integration Profiles: Guidelines for Buyers
IHE Technical Framework V4.1
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In its second year, IHE has introduced 6 additional integration Profiles. These new profiles provide a broad set of capabilities that will bring major efficiency improvements. These 6 Integration Profile are demonstrated at RSNA (November 2000) and HIMSS (February 2001) where GE is actively participating with four systems: MR Signa MR/i, CT LightSpeed QX/i, Nuclear eNTEGRA and a Radworks workstation