Interoperability 101 Bridget A. Moorman, CCE Technical Manager Industry Advisory Board Renewing Health The Continua Alliance.

Interoperability 101

Bridget A. Moorman, CCETechnical Manager

Industry Advisory BoardRenewing Health

The Continua Alliance

Overview

• What is Interoperability• Why be Interoperable• Interoperable Healthcare• Interoperability for Procurers• Standards at Interfaces• Example Environments• OSI 7 Layer Example• PAN, LAN, WAN, HRN Interfaces• Procurement Language• Market of Interoperable Products• Summary

What is Interoperability?

• Interoperability - the ability of a system or a product to work with other systems or products without special effort on the part of the customer

• Two approaches:– By adhering to published interface standards – By making use of a "broker" of services that can

convert one product's interface into another product's interface "on the fly"

www.continuaaliance.org

Why be interoperable?*

• Empower individuals and patients to better manage their health by providing them with information regarding their fitness and health through personal medical devices and services.

• Allow loved ones and professional care givers to more accurately monitor and coach chronic disease patients and elderly individuals living independently.

• Enable medical and fitness device manufacturers to rapidly develop interoperable devices and services using industry developed connectivity standards.

• Enable health care providers to offer better quality care through personalized health solutions assembled from a rich marketplace of interoperable health care devices and services.

* Per Continua Health Alliance

Interoperable Healthcare*

• ….transmit their vital signs - blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation, glucose levels, temperature, weight, respiration - seamlessly from home to their health professional, and get real-time feedback on their condition

• ….personal health and medical devices must be fully interoperable with each other and with other information sources; because broad interoperability has yet to be achieved, it is an emerging priority for health systems and for the medical and information technology industries

* Per Continua Health Alliance

Interoperability for Procurers

• Meet the needs of your customers– Patients– Clinicians– Administration– Insurance companies– Government

• Allow for ‘best of breed’ acquisition• Drive market development towards standards based

interoperability– Goal to drive down long-term costs– Lessen infrastructure replacement costs– Can allow heterogeneous environment to inter-communicate

Standards at Interfaces

• By adhering to published interface standards – Interfaces

• Personal or Peripheral Area Network (PAN)• Local Area Network (LAN)• Wide Area Network (WAN)• Health Record Network (HRN)

– Interface functions can ‘collapse’ onto each other depending on environment

Standards Promulgation Organizations

• The Continua Alliance– Focuses on personal health and wellness market

• Use of IEEE 11073 PHD standards; IHE-PCD-01 for WAN

• Integrating the Healthcare Environment– Patient Care Devices Domain (IHE-PCD)

• Use of IEEE 11073 standards; several profiles defined in healthcare environment using medical devices

WAN-IF

Example I of EnvironmentThe Continua Alliance

ApplicationHosting Device

PANDevice

PAN-IF

LANDevice

LAN-IF

xHRN-IF

WANDevice

HRDevice

*

0..1

*

*

*

*

*

*

to service provider

to hospital (clinical domain)

PANDevice

ApplicationHosting Device

PANDevice

Example II of EnvironmentIHE-PCD

PAN, LAN and WAN interfaces are collapsed into this construct(Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise-Patient Care Devices Domain (IHE-PCD))

Example III of EnvironmentThe Continua Alliance

Standards areShown at each Interface in thisdiagram

Basic Layers in InterfacesOSI 7 Layer Network Model

PAN-LAN Interface Standards - ContinuaApplication

Hosting Device

PANDevice

PAN-IF

LANDevice

LAN-IF

*

0..1

*

*

PANDevice

ApplicationHosting Device

PANDevice

WAN Interface Standards – Continua and IHE-PCD

WAN-IF

ApplicationHosting Device

WANDevice

*

*

to service provider

ApplicationHosting Device

HRN Interface Standards – Continua and IHE

xHRN-IF

WANDevice

HRDevice

*

*

to hospital (clinical domain)

Procurement Language• “The following interoperability standards are

recommended and preferred …..”• List by functional interface and OSI layer

interface:– Example: “Personal Area/Local Area Network;

Physical, Data, Network, Transport layers”

• Certification and/or assurance of interoperability in heterogeneous environment (Continua Certification, IHE Conformance Statement)

Market of Interoperable Products

• If market is sparse, still need to include interoperability language to send a message to market– Can become a discriminator in final field of

products– Sets tone-communicates your organization’s vision

for desire of interoperability

• Can be used in marketing materials to your customers – “We are interoperable based on standards”

Summary

• Interoperability - the ability of a system or a product to work with other systems or products without special effort on the part of the customer

• Use of “standards based approach”• Need to include interoperability language to

send a message to market– List standards desired in products by functional

and network layer interfaces

• Questions?

• [email protected]