Configuration Management Issues in IHE Asuman Dogac, SRDC, METU, Turkey

Standards and Interoperability Profiles Standards are essential both for integration and for interoperability However, any actual implementation of a standard requires some form of tailoring Therefore, in developing practical and effective interoperability solutions, the industry relies on Interoperability Profiles I still don’t understand!

IHE Interoperability Profiles IHE Interoperability Profiles are:  Business processes describing selected real-world scenarios (use- cases)  They specify the IT systems or applications involved in a use case (Actors)  They specify the Transactions involved in a use case  They specify interfaces by restricting the use of the existing standards such as HL7 or DICOM to accomplish a specific transaction  They specify the choreography of the involved transactions

IHE Profiles and ebBP An IHE Profile is, in fact, a Business Process Configuration management in IHE is not easy especially when Actors are grouped to produce combined business processes! Therefore configuration management should be delegated as much as possible to the computers since they process fast and are less error prone than humans This can only be possible by describing the IHE Profiles through  A standard, and  A machine processable business process specification language We propose ebBP (ebXML Business Process Specification Schema) for this purpose

XDS Document Source XDS Document Repository XDS Document Registry Provide & Register Document Set (ITI-15) Register Document (Set ITI-14) An Example IHE XDS Profile Patient Identity Source Patient Identity Feed (ITI-08) Document Consumer Retrieve Document (ITI-17) Query Registry (ITI-16)

The Corresponding ebBP Code ebBP Definition of a profile is very verbose! Therefore not given in this slide Available from “ebBP Packages for IHE Profiles”, Why worry? The software will process it! Even better, there is a software which produces such codes automatically when the process is defined through a graphical interface: ebBP Editor ebBP Editor is available at

All the code can be automatically generated through the ebBP Editor Available in Public Domain

XDS Document Source XDS Document Repository XDS Document Registry 1: Provide & Register Document Set 2: Register Document Set ATNA Secure Node 1: Node Authentication grouped 2: Provide & Register Document Set 3: Register Document Set XDS Document Source/ ATNA Secure Node XDS Document Repository/ ATNA Secure Node Any IHE Actor or PHI Application Audit Record Repository 1: Record Audit Event grouped 3: Record Audit Event 4: Register Document Set Audit Record Repository IHE Actor Grouping

Configuration Issues in IHE… IHE Actors communicate within the scope of a business process, which can be:  A single IHE Profile such as IHE XDS, or  A combined business process where several IHE Actors are grouped For two IHE Actors to communicate within the scope of a given business process:  Each Actor needs to know the business collaboration they are taking part  Each Actor needs to know their roles in the business collaboration  Each Actor need to know the transaction it will execute  Each Actor needs to know the choreography of the transactions  Each Actor needs the configuration details about how the other Actor sends and receives Messages, which include: Network addresses Certificates used for security purposes Document types

What does ebBP Provide to IHE Profiles? When an IHE business process is defined through ebBP, an Actor taking part in the process knows in a machine processable way:  The business collaborations it will be a part of  Its roles in the collaborations  The Actors it will communicate with  The documents it will send and receive  The choreography of all the transactions it will execute Consider the Business combined Process for IHE XDS, ATNA and PIX obtained through grouping related Actors The Business Collaborations involving ITI-19, ITI-8, ITI-15 XDS Document Source XDS Document Source, PIX Consumer, ATNA Secure Node XDS Document Repository, PIX Manager … Defined in Business Collaborations

Collaboration-Protocol Profile (CPP) An ebBP specification of an IHE Business Process reveals a lot of information very helpful for automation, but we need more We need to be able to describe each IHE Actor specific run time configuration issues, such as  The transport and security protocols it recognizes  The messaging protocols that it recognizes  The business processes that the Actor recognizes  All of the technical information such as URLs, time-outs, certificates to establish electronic relationships, document types CPPs provide for this!

CPP Editor in the Expert Mode

A Screenshot from CPP Editor Wizard…

Collaboration Protocol Agreement (CPA) CPAs set the terms for automated collaboration A CPA between two Actors are obtained by processing their Collaboration Protocol Profiles (CPPs) A CPA involves the following:  Matching business processes and the roles  Matching transport and transport security  Matching document packaging and document security

CPA Editor in the Expert Mode

The CPA Editor Wizard…

Realizing Connect-a-thons over the Web: Login

VCP Registration

VCP Welcome Page

VCP Actor Grouping

VCP Invitation

Thank you very much for your attention!