Cross Community Access for Imaging (XCA-I) - Detailed Proposal

1. Proposed Profile: Cross Community Access for Imaging (XCA-I)

Proposal Editor:

Chris Lindop, christopher.lindop@ge.com

Claudio Saccavini, University of Padova, csaccavini@rad.unipd.it

Date: 9 October 2008
Version: 1.1
Domain: Radiology
Reference Input - [IHE Profile Proposal XCA-I.doc]

2. The Problem

The Cross Community Information Exchange is very powerful to federate different XDS Affinity Domains and the XCA profile is a solution for the Document exchange. But if we need to share also DICOM images we need an extension of this profile such as XDS-I is for XDS.

3. Key Use Case

The HeathOptimum Project (www.healthoptimum.info) will implement in the beginning of 2009 a federation of seven different affinity domain. Every domain shares for telemedicine purposes documents and radiological images. This is the community domain scenario:

4. Standards & Systems

IHE Integration Profile XCA
DICOM Workitem for Webservices
IHE Integration Profile XDS-I
IHE Integration Profile XDS.b

5. Discussion

For XDS-I deployments, it is crucial to share images in a federation of Affinity Domains. The Italian Government, as an example, has decided to realize a national infrastructure not based on a single affinity domain, but on federation of Community Domains. Canada also has the same need with the integration of the regional imaging Repositories. The urgency for a solution in the USA is in discussion.

Summary

The XCA profile does handle the XDS Registry/repository issue effectively. It does not address a federation of image repositories. The current DICOM mechanisms are not sufficient to handle the cross community access. Current propsals have focused on gateway technology to solve this issue. This is an onging work in DICOM with webservices that hold the promise of solving this important issue. But this will hold off an IHE solution for at least a year or possibly 2.

5. Technical Approach

The current methodology is the use of gateways. But the future methodology will need to look at a more robust model using web services. This is ongoing work in DICOM.

Existing actors

TBD

New actors

TBD

Existing transactions

TBD

New transactions (standards used)

TBD

Impact on existing integration profiles

TBD

New integration profiles needed

See technical Approach summary above.

Breakdown of tasks that need to be accomplished

Technical approach is to develop a working group among implementors who are currently addressing this issue. Develop a white paper with recommendations.

6. Support & Resources

<List groups that have expressed support for the proposal and resources that would be available to accomplish the tasks listed above.>

7. Risks

<List technical or political risks that will need to be considered to successfully field the profile.>

8. Open Issues

<Point out any key issues or design problems. This will be helpful for estimating the amount of work and demonstrates thought has already gone into the candidate profile.>

9. Tech Cmte Evaluation

<The technical committee will use this area to record details of the effort estimation, etc.>

Effort Evaluation (as a % of Tech Cmte Bandwidth):

35% for ...

Responses to Issues:

See italics in Risk and Open Issue sections

Candidate Editor: