Public Comment Process

This article is a component of the Technical Framework Publication Process.

All IHE Technical Framework supplements and white papers are published for public comment to ensure stakeholder representation, transparency and quality review. This is a chance for both regular participants in IHE activities and those who don't have the time to dedicate to regular participation to contribute thoughts on proposed specifications before they are formally released.

Public comment should be considered the prelude to publication. A committee should be largely satisfied with the contents of a document before it is sent out for public comment.

The typical steps are shown below. The entity responsible for each step needs to make sure it happens, but they may do so by delegating the action.

Period: 30 days (minimum)

• Approve document for public comment (Domain Technical Committee)
• Notify Domain Coordination Committee document is going out for public comment (Domain Technical Committee cochairs)
• Place public comment draft of document to be published at ftp.ihe.net/DocumentPublication/CommitteeSubmitted/<Domain> (Domain Technical Committee Cochairs/Authors)
• Notify Documentation Specialist document is available for publication (Domain Technical Committee Cochairs/Authors)

• Prepare public comment draft of document (Documentation Specialist)
  • Move public comment draft submitted by committee to ftp.ihe.net/DocumentPublication/Archive/<Domain>/<Year>/CommitteeSubmitted
  • Perform document edits

• Notify Domain Technical Committee cochairs and authors by email that document is ready and submit copy for review (Documentation Specialist)
  • If required, perform any modifications based on review
• Prepare PDF of document (to steer people away from inline comments and towards comment form)
• Post public comment draft of document on www.ihe.net Public Comment Page (Documentation Specialist)
• Announce public comment publication to IHE News (Documentation Specialist)
  • Public Comment Announcement Template
  • Detail location of document to be reviewed, deadline for comment submission, method of comment submission
  • Provide a link to the public comment page
• (Recommended) Identify Designated Reviewers for each public comment document (Domain Technical Committee Cochairs)
• (Optional) Announce public comment publication to associated stakeholder organizations (Domain Technical Committee Cochairs)

• Submit comments to domain Technical Committee (Commenters)
  • Please use the comment web form or Excel spreadsheet provided, it saves the editor having to transcribe your comments
    • See Public Comment Process#Public Comment Links below for comment submission routes.
  • rank each comment
    • H: Important issue where there is major issue to be resolved; requires discussion and debate.
    • M: Medium issue or clarification. Requires discussion, but should not lead to long debate.
    • L: Typo or other minor classification that an editor can manage; requires no group discussion.

• Collate all comments into a spreadsheet (Secretariat/Editor)
  • Sort by line number and priority (Low/Med/High)
• Resolve comments with priority Low (Editor)
  • If any Low comments prove problematic, elevate to Med
• Distribute comment spreadsheet and updated draft with Low resolutions to Technical Committee (Editor)
• Review Med & High comments (Technical Committee)
  • Walk through document
  • Each comment may be:
    • Accepted = proposed text accepted as is
    • Rejected = committee does not agree with issue (document reason, e.g. out of scope, )
    • Resolved = issue accepted but resolved differently than proposed
• Record resolution in comment spreadsheet (Editor)
• Update document to reflect resolutions (Editor)

• Post comment spreadsheet (either to ftp.ihe.net or to Google Docs) (Editor)
• Link spreadsheet to the Public Comment Resolutions wiki page for the domain (Editor)

See Also

Public Instructions for Public Comments

Where Public Comments Are Located

Comments submitted by individuals may reside in any one of the following locations:

1. A Google spreadsheet that is populated when comments are entered in the Google form on the domain's comment web page (see the table below for the location of each domain's Google spreadsheet and comment web page)
2. An Excel spreadsheet that is downloaded from the domain comment web page and emailed as an attachment to the domain comment Google group (see the table below for a link to each domain's comment Google group)
3. Individual comments submitted to the comment Google group (see the table below for a link to the comment Google group for each domain)
4. Emails submitted to the author(s) and/or Technical Committee co-chairs (although not a recommended method to submit comments)

All comments received should be consolidated into one document prior to review and resolution by the Technical Committee.

Public Comment Links
Domain	Comment Web Page (go here to enter comments in the web form or to download an Excel spreadsheet where comments are entered and then emailed to the domain technical committee)	Comment Spreadsheet (go here to see the comments that were submitted via the web form)	Comment Google Group (go here to subscribe to the group or to view comments submitted by others)	Notes
Anatomic Pathology	TBD	TBD	TBD	Not yet created
Cardiology	http://www.ihe.net/cardiology/cardiologycomments.cfm	https://docs.google.com/a/ihe.net/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoylCs3g0nQ7dGVRbXhMS1dnbS1VeXE0SS04clpMSUE#gid=0	http://groups.google.com/group/cardiologycomments?hl=en
Dental	TBD	TBD	TBD	Not yet created
Endoscopy	TBD	TBD	TBD	Not yet created
Eyecare	http://www.ihe.net/eyecare/eyecarecomments.cfm	https://docs.google.com/a/ihe.net/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At_jYVJ2XnXsdE15RldDLWFNMU9KRlNfWlg4LXVMdVE#gid=0	https://groups.google.com/a/ihe.net/group/eyecarecomments/topics?pli=1
IT Infrastructure	http://www.ihe.net/iti/iticomments.cfm	https://docs.google.com/a/ihe.net/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoylCs3g0nQ7dDExTThRQ1ZPQWxNeW5BdmY5NjR0Ymc#gid=0	https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/iticomments
Laboratory	http://www.ihe.net/laboratory/laboratorycomments.cfm	https://docs.google.com/a/ihe.net/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At_jYVJ2XnXsdHFKcVk4RjlSZG9xS3RBODdfLWw3a3c#gid=0	https://groups.google.com/a/ihe.net/group/labcomments/topics
Patient Care Coordination	http://www.ihe.net/pcc/pcccomments.cfm	https://docs.google.com/a/ihe.net/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoylCs3g0nQ7dGt5Q3hiOG8zM2pzOW1MVEFaRzVLb1E#gid=05	https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/pcccomments
Patient Care Device	http://www.ihe.net/pcd/pcdcomments.cfm	https://docs.google.com/a/ihe.net/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvSvbmWRIsFQdDA2ZVdrdWRUNXRJS2xOS19hQ1hDZHc#gid=0	https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups#!forum/pcdcomments
Pharmacy	http://www.ihe.net/pharmacy/pharmacycomments.cfm	https://docs.google.com/a/ihe.net/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvHJmuNnbftPdC1qWDB6c25abjlkTUY2aUhnaVNYU3c#gid=0	https://groups.google.com/a/ihe.net/group/pharmacycomments/topics
Quality, Research and Public Health	http://www.ihe.net/qrph/qrphcomments.cfm	https://docs.google.com/a/ihe.net/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvSvbmWRIsFQdDJuTi1lWmVKRGtWamk0ZENxUV9qd2c#gid=0	https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups#!forum/qrphcomments
Radiation Oncology	http://www.ihe.net/radiation_oncology/radiationoncologycomments.cfm	https://docs.google.com/a/ihe.net/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AikOXWdaC-LkdFdwdV95dVVIWkhERDNLZ1NCelV0dEE#gid=0	https://groups.google.com/a/ihe.net/group/rocomments/topics
Radiology	http://www.ihe.net/radiology/radiologycomments.cfm	https://docs.google.com/a/ihe.net/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AikOXWdaC-LkdDZLSmRLZVZuaEgwN3F1d2s1bEJEc0E#gid=0	https://groups.google.com/a/ihe.net/group/radiologycomments/topics