PCD Process

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Overview

The Patient Care Device Domain is structured as a set of committees including the Co-Chair Committee, the Planning and Technical Committees and a set of ad-hoc Working Committees. This document covers governance issues such as voting, participation, etc. in these groups. In general, all activity needs to comply with the IHE Governance Agreement IHE Governance.


OPEN ITEM: Showcase Ancillary Equipment Policy


PCD Committee Types

The PCD has three different committee types:

  • Co-Chair Committee
  • Domain Committees such as the Planning Committee and Technical Committee
  • Working Committees are working groups focused on a specific task such as developing a Technical Framework or Profile Proposal.

Co-Chair Committee

The PCD Co-Chair committee membership consists of voting and non-voting members. The voting members include the two elected co-chairs of the Planning Committee and the two elected co-chairs of the Technical Committee. The non-voting members include the Project Manager and the representative(s) of the Sponsoring Organization(s). Decisions can only be made if a quorum of three members is present. Approval of a decision requires three co-chairs of which a majority (2) must approve. Voting is verbal or via Webex.

Domain Committees

There are two PCD Domain Committees, the Planning Committee and the Technical Committee, which consist of IHE Member Organizations interested in participating and monitoring the work of the PCD Domain. Rules for voting in these committees follow the IHE Governance and are outlined in more detail below.

Non-members may be invited to attend meetings, but this should be for a short time and they should be encouraged to become members. They should be advised that they need to abide by the same rules as established in Appendix A (i.e. regarding Intellectual Property) of the IHE Governance Agreement.

Working Committees

Working Committees are created to address specific tasks and are then disbanded when their objectives have been achieved. These groups generally fall into two types:

  • Working Group: Chartered to develop a specific IHE PCD work item such as a technical framework profile or white paper
  • Task Group: Focuses on specific issues or activities in support of the IHE PCD work program.

Examples include the RTM WG, Connectathon and Showcase TG, ACM WG, Vent Terminology TG and ICE-PAC WG.

These committees can consist of both experts from IHE Member Organizations and subject matter experts that are not from IHE Member Organizations. In general, these committees generate specific work products by consensus. If consensus is not achieved, the issues are brought to the appropriate Domain Committee where the topic is discussed and a decision is reached based on that Committee's voting procedures. In addition finished work products from the Working Committees are brought to the appropriate Committee for distribution and final approval by member voting. While committee experts who come from IHE Member Organizations are bound by the IHE Governance rules on Intellectual Property, experts from non-members must also be advised that they need to abide by the same rules as established in Appendix A of the IHE Governance Agreement IHE Governance. Ideally, agreements, summaries and action items should be documented, on an expert-by-expert basis, in the WG or TG Discussion Summaries and Action Item lists.

Voting on Domain Committee Activities

Since the only official confirmation and approval of PCD work comes from the Domain Committees, voting within the Planning and Technical Committees must follow strict procedural guidelines in accordance with the IHE Governance Agreement IHE Governance adopted by IHE International in the Fall of 2007.

The following links provide supporting information:

Every participant on the committee must be a designated representative of an IHE Member Organization or a temporary observer.

Voting

In order for decisions to be made we are required to have a quorum of 50% of the voting eligible members participate. A vote is carried by a simple majority of those voting, excluding abstentions (which however count toward quorum). We have agreed to the following procedures to encourage strong participation from all voting members so that the work of the committee will not be delayed due to lack of a quorum.

Acquiring and Maintaining Voting Privileges

  • In order to acquire voting privileges a Member Organization must be present at 2 Meetings in a row. They can vote at the second meeting.
  • In order to lose voting privileges a Member Organization must fail to vote (or abstain) at 3 Voting Meetings/ Email Ballots in a row.

Review Voting for a number of FAQs related to how an organization acquires and maintains voting privileges. It is critical that those who have voting rights participate consistently.

Meeting Types

  • Meetings will be declared as discussion or decision meetings.
    • At discussion meetings there will be no voting or decisions made, it will allow only for technical discussion of the issues on a particular topic. Participating in a discussion meeting will not count towards maintaining voting rights. Meeting records from discussion meetings will be captured in Decision Summaries that will be reviewed for accuracy but not be voted on for approval.
    • At decision meetings there may be votes or conclusions drawn. Meeting records from decision meetings will be captured in a combination of Decision Summaries and Meeting Minutes (which capture voting decisions). The Discussion Summaries will not require approval, however, the Meeting Minutes will be approved after the meeting by email ballot. Participating in the meeting counts towards maintaining voting rights. Response to approval of minutes email ballot counts separately towards maintaining voting rights.

Email Ballots

  • An email ballot is equivalent to a decision meeting in terms of consideration for maintenance of voting privileges. At present, we have email ballots for approval of minutes, CP ballots, co-chair election, and IHE international board representative election.
  • For email ballots all votes must be submitted by email and must be submitted by the due date.
  • Email ballot due date will a minimum of two weeks from release.
  • Results of email ballots will be captured in the Meeting Minutes of the relevant Planning, Technical or Co-Chair Committee.

Voting at Face-to-Face and Tcon meetings

  • A two-week notice will normally be given for a decision meeting. Only one representative of each IHE eligible member organization can vote.
  • For face-to-face only those attending (either in person or over the phone) may cast a vote. Those not attending may designate a proxy or abstain by email.
  • For tcon meetings only those attending may cast a vote. Those not attending may designate a proxy or vote by email in advance of the meeting.
  • Voting at face-to-face and phone or Internet meetings will be:
    • orally by voice poll
    • submitted by email to the committee secretary or co-chair prior to or at the time of the vote
    • through a Webex poll
  • The co-chairs will make the decision as to which voting process will be used depending on the gravity of the issue.
  • Results of Face-to-Face and phone or Internet meeting ballots will be captured in the Meeting Minutes of the relevant Committee.

Proxy

  • Each member organization may identify a proxy from its organization for the purpose of voting. If the member organization is a user organization then it can

identify a proxy from its own organization or another member organization. The proxy must be declared prior to the beginning of the meeting. It is declared by the designated representatives via email to the secretary, by copy to the co-chairs and by copy to the receiver of the proxy. Proxies cannot be used for email ballots.

Abstain by Email

  • For purpose of maintaining voting rights for members unable to attend meetings, it is possible to submit an "abstain" email vote to the secretary prior to the beginning of the meeting. Any vote received after the beginning of the meeting will be discarded (i.e. an "abstain" email vote received on the second day of a one week meeting will not count for maintaining voting rights)

Closed Issues

  • How to handle one person who represents multiple organizations. Answer: One person one vote - every person can only be associated with exactly one IHE Member Organization for voting purposes.
  • How to handle votes for people unable to attend meetings (because of time zone for instance). Answer: allowing proxy but limit it to one per member and allowing "abstain" email vote submitted prior to the beginning of the meeting.


Voting for Board Representative

Under the governance rules each IHE development domain selects one representative and one alternate to the IHE International Board. The PCD domain will select its representative and alternate using the following process:

  1. Sponsor canvasses co-chairs to see who is interested in serving on the Board.
  2. Steering Committee will decide based on concensus who will represent the Domain as its representative and alternate.
  3. If concensus cannot be reached, then Sponsor will call an email ballot of the PCD Planning and Technical committees. Each member organization gets one vote even if they are members of both committees.
  4. The sponsor tallies the vote and announces results. Top vote getter is board member, second vote getter is alternate.



Voting - In Case of a Tie

There will be situations where a vote results in a tie. In this case the following process can be followed:

  • If not all eligible members have voted, the voting period can be extended by one week.
  • If, after the extension, a tie still exists then an impartial tie-breaking method can be used. For example a coin can be flipped, or a random number generator (such as in Excel) can be used to generate a number between 1 and 100 with each party trying to pick a number closest to the one generated.



Change Proposal Process

See PCD_Change_Proposals for specific PCD process for Change Proposals to the Technical Framework. Voting rules described above apply to Change Proposal ballots.


Showcase Development Process

The PCD adopts a consensus approach to developing Showcase demonstrations. Unlike other Domains, the PCD Showcase often displays several times more devices and systems, demonstrates multiple profiles and requires vendor agreement on device types and parameters (including values). This requires volunteer development of the clinical stories, steps within each story, and development of the scripts narrated by docents and vendors.

The PCD strives to provide visibility for each vendor, seeking equality of opportunity while developing demonstrations that convey meaningful experiences for visitors. The PCD recognizes that it isn't always going to do this without raising concerns that a vendor is not treated equitably or has another issue. For this reason the PCD cochairs will review any issue brought by a vendor and seek to achieve a solution that achieves these dual goals.


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