IHE is an international organization involving healthcare professionals and industry representatives working together to improve the way computer systems in healthcare share information. IHE provides a common framework for building effective solutions to close the communication gaps between systems and foster their interoperability. High-quality patient care and optimized clinical workflows require efficient access to all relevant clinical data across the continuum of care. Orderly exchanging information between diagnostic and therapy devices, clinical systems and IT systems from a variety of manufacturers within and across hospitals is essential to achieve this goal.
Enhanced Connectivity & Workflow Optimization
Connecting systems from multiple vendors often turns out to be a complex and challenging task. The IHE Framework provides a standards-based foundation to reduce the complexity of systems integration in multi-vendor environments, healthcare IT standards such as DICOM and HL7 are the basis for defining interoperability building blocks – the IHE Integration Profiles – to assemble larger integrated solutions.
IHE closes the gaps between disjoined systems, bridges loosely connected departments and institutions thus enabling an unobstructed flow of information, ensuring overall data consistency and eliminating sources of redundant erroneous information.
Competence in Integration
Siemens is an active member of IHE right from the start and has made significant contributions towards the advancement of the IHE concepts based on its extensive experience with best practice integration. We have paid close attention to the IHE concepts in product development and have performed extremely well at IHE connectathons (cross-vendor tests) and demonstrations worldwide.
With syngo® and Soarian® we provide the foundation for our open standards-based products and integration solutions. Siemens offers a wide range of products and systems with built-in IHE integration capabilities: imaging modalities, workplaces, imaging solutions and information systems.
Key Benefits of IHE
- Seamless exchange of data within hospitals & across the healthcare community
- Easier access to patient data and pertinent clinical information
- Well-defined implementation framework based on established IT standards
- Manageable systems integration
- Cost-effective integrated solutions