GDC Minutes 2026-01-07

Welcome

Participants Peter MacIsaac (co-chair) Aaron Goldmuntz (IHE CEO) Ken Fuchs (IHE Secretary) Adam Zhan (IHE China acting Chair) Essien GE (IHE China) Yasunari (Salt) Shiokawa (IHE Japan)

Apologies: Vince McCauley (IHE Australia)

Summary

Peter MacIsaac welcomed attendee and thanked Aaron Goldmuntz (IHE CEO) and Ken Fuchs (IHE Secretary). Ken Fuchs updated the attendees on the Education Committee's efforts to recruit members, particularly from the international committee, and discussed the IHE Certified Professional (IHE CP) program, which is based on dated material and is in process of updating.

Adam Zhan presented the IHE China report for 2025. detailing the organization's structure, Connectathon activities, and future plans.

It is hoped that Adam can discuss the application for a forthcoming IHE China connectathon with Tools and Testing Committee prior to presenting the report at next weeks Board.

Issues noted: strategic scheduling of China connectathon to mesh with global connectathon timetables, future efforts to integrating IHE China's Connectathon results into the global database.

Education Committee - call for nomination

Ken Fuchs briefly discussed the Education Committee, emphasizing the need for someone from the international committee to join the education committee from the GDC group. The committee's main functions include monitoring and supporting educational activities, working with national deployment committees, and focusing on the IHE Certified Professional (IHE CP) program

IHE Certified Professional (IHE CP) Program =

IHE Certified Professional (IHE CP) Program is an exam-based certification for individuals to be recognized as an IHE Certified Professional, useful for consulting and IHE-related work. The exam is on-demand and hosted in-person at Connectathon events, but content needs updating - a task for education committee. Essien Ge also asked about the availability of introduction materials for different domains and profiles, which Aaron Goldmuntz agreed is needed and mentioned the importance of housing such overview materials centrally

National Deployment Committees Report - *IHE China

• Board reports and status updates

IHE China background. The organization has approximately 200 committee members from various sectors and four main committees: Strategy, Expert, Foreign Affairs, and Testing and Technology IHE China was initiated in 2008 by six leading Chinese medical associations and currently operates under the China Association of Medical Equipment

IHE China Connectathon and Education. IHE China planned to hold a Connectathon annually, but postponed the last one due to inadequate vendor participation and rescheduled it for March of the current year, which is the same week as the IHE Europe test event. Essien Ge explained that IHE China has conducted several training sessions, including two rounds on FHIR specifications, to prepare manufacturers for new, FHIR-based profiles they intend to introduce in the next Connectathon. IHE China also engages in an annual conference, a symposium on medical improvement, and leads in drafting a group standard for medical device information security application in medical institutions. IHE China's Connectathon 2026 focuses on five domains: Radiology, Cardiology, Laboratory, Patient Care Device, and IT Infrastructure, with the addition of four FHIR profiles for this year's event. IHE China plans to hold the Connectathon on March 23rd-27th , 2026, preceded by a test specification training

IHE China Focus Areas and Future Plans IHE China's Connectathon focuses on five domains: Radiology, Cardiology, Laboratory, Patient Care Device, and IT Infrastructure, with the addition of four FHIR profiles for this year's event. IHE China plans to hold the Connectathon on March 23rd-27th , 2026, preceded by a test specification training followed by an annual conference where a new IHE board and organization will be elected Peter MacIsaac noted that despite many Chinese Connectathons, the results do not appear on the IHE global website, which Adam attributed to a past issue with Chinese character support. Aaron Goldmuntz confirmed working on fixing the issue of IHE China's Connectathon results not being listed in the global results and discussed the formal process for making a Connectathon official, which involves submitting a request and subsequent report to the Testing and Tools Committee

Connectathon Coordination and Standardization Aaron Goldmuntz invited Adam Zhan and Essien Ge to the next Testing and Tools Committee meeting to discuss the March Connectathon, although sending a representative from IHE international to the event in March may not be possible. There was also discussion about modernizing and updating the testing tools, such as Gazelle, which IHE Catalyst maintains, to address difficulties arising from local modifications and older versions

Strategic Connectathon Scheduling and Cross-Testing Peter MacIsaac suggested strategically scheduling Connectathons at different times globally to maximize vendor participation and avoid conflicts, such as the IHE China event coinciding with IHE Europe's. Aaron Goldmuntz agreed with the desire for staggered scheduling and proposed the possibility of virtual cross-testing between regions like Europe and China if events were held concurrently, perhaps focusing on a single profile, like the International Patient Summary (IPS). Adam noted that IHE China did not yet include the IPS profile for testing, focusing on five other domains, but Essien Ge confirmed studying the IPS profile last year and seeing opportunities to include it in future testing

IHE China 2025 - report IHE China 2025 - summary

Special Presentation

• None

Future Deployment Committee Reporting

• Proposals:

• Getting to a more efficient method of reporting (webform, ...)

• Brainstorm

Next meeting

• Wednesday, April 1, 2026, 09:00-10:00pm CT (US/EU friendly time)

2026-04-01