Working Together To Ensure Efficient, Usable Standards And Practices.

IHE-UK is a non-profit organisation which gathers a broad range of stakeholders

Healthcare professionals, suppliers, users, specifiers, regulatory authorities, procurers and interoperability experts – to advance the shared exchange of patient information through the deployment of IHE Integration Profile specifications. It is affiliated to IHE-Europe, and to IHE International, works closely with the HL7 organisation and co-operatively with openEHR.

To achieve our mission and in support of our growing membership IHE-UK undertakes a variety of activities including:-

• Promoting the IHE Integration Profile based approach to achieving interoperability across UK health and social care
• Specifying extensions to the global specifications to support specific UK requirements.
• Creating and helping to maintain UK National guidance notes on the use of IHE Integration Profiles.
• Informing IT and healthcare professionals about the implementation of IHE Integration Profiles through educational events including live multi-vendor demonstrations, formal meetings, networking meetings and committee work.
• Supporting the successful completion of testing events (“IHE-Europe Connectathons”) according to the IHE International guidelines,
• Supporting the development and adoption of new IHE Profiles, which are of significant interest to users and suppliers within the UK healthcare environment

Supporting the open standards implementation

Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) is a world-wide initiative that enables Healthcare IT System users and suppliers to work together to achieve interoperability of systems through the careful definition of healthcare tasks, the specification of the communication of information between systems required to support those tasks and the testing of supplier systems (Connectathons).

IHE helps promote the coordinated use of existing established standards such as DICOM and HL7 to address specific clinical needs in support of optimal patient care. IHE engages healthcare authorities & industry, clinicians and healthcare professionals to develop, test, and implement standards-based solutions.

IHE Technical Frameworks and guidance enable seamless and secure access to clinical & healthcare information that is available at the right place and at the right time. Healthcare computer systems developed in accordance with IHE interoperability and integration profiles communicate with one another better, are easier to implement, and enable healthcare providers to use clinical information more effectively.

THE IHE COMMUNITY COMPRISES OF: