Enabling Document Sharing Using IHE Profiles

Introduction

The Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) standards profiling organization has developed a collection of profiles which can be leveraged for use by healthcare communities for the purposes of document sharing. One of the most significant applications of healthcare information technology is the exchange of health information among disparate clinical information systems and otherwise unaffiliated care providers. Across the world, various communities have developed or are developing methods for exchanging health information among healthcare providers, patients, and other authorized parties. The purpose of this white paper is to provide an overview of the collection of IHE profiles which are intended to be used by communities for exchanging health information. The collection of profiles includes support for patient identification, health document location and retrieval, provider directories, and the protection of privacy and security. This white paper will show how various profiles work together to provide a standards based, interoperable approach to community and cross-community health information sharing.

Outline from White-Paper

1. Introduction
2. Principles of IHE for Health Document Sharing
   1. General IHE principles
   2. Document Sharing Governance
   3. Distinction between Document and Message
   4. Longitudinal Patient Record
   5. Use of Documents
   6. Value of Metadata
   7. Document Relationships
   8. Document Sharing Models
   9. Patient Identity Management
   10. Location Sharing Partners
   11. Security/Privacy
3. Document Sharing Profiles
   1. Direct Push
   2. Centralized Discovery and Retrieve
   3. Federated Discovery and Retrieve
4. Patient Identity Management
   1. PIX
   2. PDQ
   3. XCPD
5. Common Provider Director
6. Security and Privacy
   1. Policy and Risk Management
   2. Applying Security and Privacy to Document Sharing
   3. IHE Security and Privacy Controls
7. Further Reading

Specification

• White-Paper Enabling doc sharing through IHE Profiles
• White-Paper XDS Affinity Domain Template
• White-Paper HIT Standards for HIM Practices
• White-Paper Access Control

Further reading

• All IHE Profiles within the Document Sharing family
• John Moehrke Blog, HIE Topic