Cross Enterprise Document Sharing: IHE XDS Integration

Microsoft IHE XDS Reference Implementation
I will be sharing information on Cross enterprise document sharing which is an important topic in the area of Health Information Exchanges and RHIOs. This model would equally apply to single organiziation document sharing as well.

Microsoft has recently released the IHE, XDS Reference implementation .

Roberto Ruggeri (a Senior Technical Strategist with Microsoft Worldwide Health) has an excellent introduction to IHE XDS on his blog.

Roborto writes:

"Integrating the Healthcare
Enterprise (IHE) is an organization
operating in the Health Information and Communication Technology area. The main
purpose of IHE is to create Interoperability Profiles that simplify integration
scenarios in healthcare."

"Arguably one of the most successful IHE profiles
is Cross-Enterprise Document Sharing or XDS. The profile focuses of the
publication, storage and retrieval of documents for the purpose of exchange
within a network of trusted participants (Affinity
Domain)."

IHE IT Infrastructure Technical Framework
Microsoft IHE, XDS Reference implementation

I found the presentations listed below useful for understanding IHE XDS basics concepts. It would be useful to review these documents before diving into Microsoft IHE, XDS Reference implementation .

IHE Canada, XDS Integration Profile, Technical Discussion

IHE XDS, Presentation by Jonathon L. Ellion MD (Heartlab): Very good , dynamic powerpoint introduction to IHE XDS

Leveraging IHE to Build RHIO Interoperability, Charles Parisot's (GE Healthcare) presentation discusses IHE issues as they relate to RHIOs

This article discusses a strategy for extending the IHE XDS for support of a federated architecture.
Enhancing IHE XDS for Federated Clinical Affinity Domain Support

Setting up an XDS Affinity Domain using IHE Components: This is an IBM Healthcare and Life Sciences document. It's a good practical guide to setting up a theoretical deployment. It addresses the architectural issues involved. Some of the points discussed are:

1. Patient Identity Cross Reference Manager

2. Security and Auditing

3. Physical and Logical Topology

4. Document Sharing Scenarios

HIE/RHIO Resources:

MA-SHARE Record Locator Service Technical Document
RHIO Reference Architecture Very good technical discussion of a RHIO architecture. Includes discussions on the use of BizTalk and data flow in a federated architecture model.