Connectathon Organization and Execution
This page Connectathon provides a very broad overview of IHE Connectathons and includes information about participating in exiting events. The audience for the information presented below includes organizations that wish to start and host their own Connectathon.
Who Can Sponsor a Connectathon?
Many Connectathons are sponsored and run by a national deployment committee. In the case of Europe, IHE Europe is the overall sponsor and much of the logistics are left to a deployment committee at the country level. Examples of countries that have executed Connectathons at the national level include (as of 2020.01.01):
- Austria
- China
- France
- Germany
- Italy
- Korea
- Luxembourg
- Netherlands
- Spain
- Switzerland
- Turkey
- United Kingdom
- United States
These IHE Connectathons will typically test profiles in more than one IHE Domain based on national or regional interests.
Some IHE Domains run Connectathons that are specific to their domain. They may find that they have international participation and would prefer to run events that are targeted to their domain rather than having a regional focus. Domains that have run Connectathons include:
- Eye Care
- Radiation Oncology
Why Do You Want to Run a Connectathon?
There are a number of reasons for organizations to sponsor and run Connectathons. Some of these are:
- Interoperability testing at the national, regional or domain level is a benefit to the industry
- A country or region is preparing to roll out new initiatives, and the Connectathon will serve as a place to test IHE profiles that are important to those initiatives.
- This might include brand new profiles or existing profiles.
- Public demonstrations of IHE profiles at conferences require IHE testing in advance of the conference for quality reasons.
- A domain that is expanding profiles may desire to have participants test the new features.
What Are the Traditional Roles Associated with Managing a Connectathon?
Sponsor is the organization with overall responsibility for the event. This includes (but is not limited to):
- Application to host the event
- Selection of profiles for testing
- Fee setting
- Call for participation and contracting with participants
- Logistics (venue, network, travel, staff)
Connectathon Manager is traditionally one person who has responsibility for technical aspects of the event. This person can be a member of the sponsor organization or can be an outside contractor. This manager and sponsor will decide on how to share tasks. One task that the manager typically fills is to serve as the first line of support for technical questions (How is the network configured? What profile/actor pairs should I test? What do I need to complete for successful testing? ....). There is some overlap with the Domain Manager.
Domain Manager In the context of a Connectathon, the Domain Manager is responsible to define and document test cases including the steps and evaluation criteria that are used to test profiles in the assigned domain. This work is done in advance of the event, and the documentation is made available to participants in advance. Domain Managers are frequently at individual Connectathons to administer tests and to answer questions about the tests and/or results.
There are some instances where the Domain Manager for a specific domain might not be present at a Connectathon. In such a case, the Connectathon Manager or other surrogate will fill this role at the event. Common sense dictates that participants may need help resolving questions and will benefit by having a knowledgeable person readily available.
A Domain Manager has responsibilities outside of the Connectathon that lead directly to writing the test cases.
Monitor is a position for someone with relevant experience to review results of individual tests. The number of monitors will depend on the size and scope of the Connectathon. In the traditional event, the Connectathon Manager and/or Domain Manager(s) serve as monitors. Thus, each Connectathon has at least one monitor to review individual tests. In almost all cases, additional monitors are needed as one person cannot review all test cases and provide other support.