PCC TF-1/Introduction

Introduction

This document, the IHE Patient Care Coordination Technical Framework (PCC TF), defines specific implementations of established standards. These are intended to achieve integration goals that promote appropriate exchange of medical information to coordinate the optimal patient care among care providers in different care settings. It is expanded annually, after a period of public review, and maintained regularly through the identification and correction of errata. The latest version of the document is always available via the Internet at http://www.ihe.net/Technical_Framework/ , where the technical framework volumes specific to the various healthcare domains addressed by IHE may be found.

The IHE Patient Care Coordination Technical Framework identifies a subset of the functional components of the healthcare enterprises and health information networks, called IHE actors, and specifies their interactions in terms of a set of coordinated, standards-based transactions. The other domains within the IHE initiative also produce Technical Frameworks within their respective areas that together form the IHE Technical Framework. Currently, the following IHE Technical Framework(s) are available:

• IHE IT Infrastructure Technical Framework
• IHE Cardiology Technical Framework
• IHE Laboratory Technical framework
• IHE Radiology Technical Framework
• IHE Patient Care Coordination Technical Framework

Where applicable, references are made to other technical frameworks. For the conventions on referencing other frameworks, see the preface of this volume.

Relationship to Standards

The IHE Technical Framework identifies functional components of a distributed healthcare environment (referred to as IHE actors), solely from the point of view of their interactions in the healthcare enterprise. It further defines a coordinated set of transactions based on standards (such as HL7, IETF, ASTM, DICOM, ISO, OASIS, etc.) in order to accomplish a particular use case. As the scope of the IHE initiative expands, transactions based on other standards may be included as required.

At its current level of development, IHE has also created Content Integration Profiles to further specify the payloads of these transactions, again based on standards. This has become necessary as the healthcare industry moves towards the use of transaction standards that have been used in more traditional computing environments.

In some cases, IHE recommends selection of specific options supported by these standards. However, IHE does not introduce technical choices that contradict conformance to these standards. If errors in or extensions to existing standards are identified, IHE’s policy is to report them to the appropriate standards bodies for resolution within their conformance and standards evolution strategy.

IHE is therefore an implementation framework, not a standard. Conformance claims for products must still be made in direct reference to specific standards. In addition, vendors who have implemented IHE integration capabilities in their products may publish IHE Integration Statements to communicate their products’ capabilities. Vendors publishing IHE Integration Statements accept full responsibility for their content. By comparing the IHE Integration Statements from different products, a user familiar with the IHE concepts of actors and integration profiles can determine the level of integration between them. See PCC TF-1: Appendix C for the format of IHE Integration Statements.

Relationship to Product Implementations

The IHE actors and transactions described in the IHE Technical Framework are abstractions of the real-world healthcare information system environment. While some of the transactions are traditionally performed by specific product categories (e.g. HIS, Clinical Data Repository, Electronic Health record systems, Radiology Information Systems, Clinical Information Systems or Cardiology Information Systems), the IHE Technical Framework intentionally avoids associating functions or actors with such product categories. For each actor, the IHE Technical Framework defines only those functions associated with integrating information systems. The IHE definition of an actor should therefore not be taken as the complete definition of any product that might implement it, nor should the framework itself be taken to comprehensively describe the architecture of a healthcare information system.

The reason for defining actors and transactions is to provide a basis for defining the interactions among functional components of the healthcare information system environment. In situations where a single physical product implements multiple functions, only the interfaces between the product and external functions in the environment are considered to be significant by the IHE initiative. Therefore, the IHE initiative takes no position as to the relative merits of an integrated environment based on a single, all-encompassing information system versus one based on multiple systems that together achieve the same end.

Framework Development and Maintenance

The IHE Patient Care Coordination Technical Framework is continuously maintained and expanded on an annual basis by the IHE Patient Care Coordination Technical Committee. The development and maintenance process of the Framework follows a number of principles to ensure stability of the specification so that both vendors and users may use it reliably in specifying, developing and acquiring systems with IHE integration capabilities.

The first of these principles is that any extensions or clarifications to the Technical Framework must maintain backward compatibility with previous versions of the framework (except in rare cases for corrections) in order to maintain interoperability with systems that have implemented IHE Actors and Integration Profiles defined there. The IHE Patient Care Coordination Technical Framework is developed and re-published annually following a three-step process:

1. The Patient Care Coordination Technical Committee develops supplements to the current stable version of the Technical Framework to support new functionality identified by the IHE Strategic and PCC Planning Committees and issues them for public comment.
2. The Committee addresses all comments received during the public comment period and publishes an updated version of the Technical Framework for “Trial Implementation.” This version contains both the stable body of the Technical Framework from the preceding cycle and the newly developed supplements. It is this version of the Technical Framework that is used by vendors in developing trial implementation software for the IHE Connectathons.
3. The Committee regularly considers change proposals to the Trial Implementation version of the Technical Framework, including those from implementers who participate in the Connectathon. After resolution of all change proposals received within 60 days of the Connectathon, the Technical Framework version is published as “Final Text”.

The Committee as part of the Technical framework maintenance will consider change proposals received after the publication to the “Final Text”.