IHE cross-enterprise document sharing for imaging: interoperability testing software

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>With the deployments of Electronic Health Records (EHR), interoperability testing in healthcare is becoming crucial. EHR enables access to prior diagnostic information in order to assist in health decisions. It is a virtual system that results from the cooperation of several heterogeneous distributed systems. Interoperability between peers is therefore essential. Achieving interoperability requires various types of testing. Implementations need to be tested using software that simulates communication partners, and that provides test data and test plans.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this paper we describe a software that is used to test systems that are involved in sharing medical images within the EHR. Our software is used as part of the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) testing process to test the Cross Enterprise Document Sharing for imaging (XDS-I) integration profile. We describe its architecture and functionalities; we also expose the challenges encountered and discuss the elected design solutions.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>EHR is being deployed in several countries. The EHR infrastructure will be continuously evolving to embrace advances in the information technology domain. Our software is built on a web framework to allow for an easy evolution with web technology. The testing software is publicly available; it can be used by system implementers to test their implementations. It can also be used by site integrators to verify and test the interoperability of systems, or by developers to understand specifications ambiguities, or to resolve implementations difficulties.</p

Routes for breaching and protecting genetic privacy

We are entering the era of ubiquitous genetic information for research, clinical care, and personal curiosity. Sharing these datasets is vital for rapid progress in understanding the genetic basis of human diseases. However, one growing concern is the ability to protect the genetic privacy of the data originators. Here, we technically map threats to genetic privacy and discuss potential mitigation strategies for privacy-preserving dissemination of genetic data.Comment: Draft for comment

Workflow in Clinical Trial Sites & Its Association with Near Miss Events for Data Quality: Ethnographic, Workflow & Systems Simulation

10.1371/journal.pone.0039671PLoS ONE76

Benefits of the DICOM Structured Report

Recently, the digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) standard introduced rules for the encoding, transmission, and storage of the imaging diagnostic report. This medical document can be stored and communicated with the images in picture archiving and communication system (PACS). It is a structured document that contains text with links to other data such as images, waveforms, and spatial or temporal coordinates. Its structure, along with its wide use of coded information, enables the semantic understanding of the data that is essential for the Electronic Healthcare Record deployment. In this article, we present DICOM Structured Report (SR) and discuss its benefits. We show how SR enables efficient radiology workflow, improves patient care, optimizes reimbursement, and enhances the radiology ergonomic working conditions. As structured input significantly alters the interpretation process, understanding all its benefits is necessary to support the change

Translating the IHE Teaching File and Clinical Trial Export (TCE) Profile Document Templates into Functional DICOM Structured Report Objects

The Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) Teaching File and Clinical Trial Export (TCE) integration profile describes a standard workflow for exporting key images from an image manager/archive to a teaching file, clinical trial, or electronic publication application. Two specific digital imaging and communication in medicine (DICOM) structured reports (SR) reference the key images and contain associated case information. This paper presents step-by-step instructions for translating the TCE document templates into functional and complete DICOM SR objects. Others will benefit from these instructions in developing TCE compliant applications