Process Suggestions

Certification

Introduction

In the IHE Europe meeting of October 30 eleven items have been presented as suggestions for improvement of the IHE process quality. Decision will be taken shortly on what are considered to be the priorities to focus on in the near future. In order to take such decision, we need to have more details on each item and the efforts needed. A template will be created and distributed to the item coordinators (see Annex I).

List of suggested improvement items:

Note: see also the meeting notes of October 30!

1. Field problem reporting process. Introduce lightweight vendor-neutral field problem reporting process with feedback loop to IHE TF specifications and test tools.
2. Distinction between products and development prototypes. Introduce a distinction between prototypes and products during the connectathon test.
3. Strengthen status and standing of connect-a-thon process.Think of independent healthcare provider “jury” at Connect-a-thon. Have ISO certification of IHE Connectathon process. Contact some recognized testing bodies and invite them to Connectathon.
4. Test Specifications. Introduction of test specifications in the IHE Technical Framework and Integration Profile development process.
5. Improve Status and Standing of Test Specifications. Formal review process by healthcare providers for the test specifications.
6. Improve the IHE test tools. Improve the coverage of the IHE test tools, for instance by attracting more resources via an Open Source development process.
7. Self-Certification by Vendors. Perform self-certification by vendors with the approved test specifications and tools. Validation of the tools by third party ?
8. Marketing and promotion of IHE quality testing process. Vendor’s Marketing/Sales staff should know about and promote IHE quality testing process, based on easy to use tool given to them without technical stuff.
9. Description of IHE profiles as building blocks for National/Regional projects. List the features of the actors in IHE profiles, to facilitate the use of “building blocks” in National Healthcare IT Infrastructure projects, hospitals and others healthcare organizations
10. General glossary. Create a general glossary for the IHE terminology and process.
11. IHE maintenance process Describe the maintenance process of IHE for fixes to TF , the CP process.

Annex I: Template for quality improvement item analysis and action planning.

Section 1. Number and Title for Quality Improvement Item

[see page 1 and 2]

Section 2. Objective.

[Describe what the intent of the improvement item is, what will be improved in the IHE process, and basically how.]

Section 3. Analysis.

[Describe why this improvement is needed, what is wrong with the current practice.]

Section 4. Results.

[Describe what the concrete measurable results and deliverables are for this improvement item. What will be better, who will do better, how do the stakeholders recognize this, and who are the stakeholders.]

Section 5. Roadblocks.

[List the potential roadblocks that may circumvent the objective to be achieved.]

Section 6. Work breakdown: Actions and organization and timing

[Describe what actions are needed to achieve the result and attack the roadblocks, what kind of organizational setting is needed, resource needs, and what’s the expectation of the work effort and timing when the work could/should be completed. List dependencies on other improvement items, if any.]