IHE a small vendor POV

1. IHEa small vendor POV Lapo Bertini CEO Rasna Medical Systems IHE Europe Tutorial Geneva, 10 October 2006

2. Company facts • Rasna Medical Systems • A company delivering IT solutions to the health-care community on a B2B basis • dedicated to support radiological routine • producing dedicated components • from image manager to long-term archives, from review workstations to CD/DVD creators • Headquarters are in Florence, Italy • Sales offices in Norway and Spain • Operations in Italy, Norway, Spain, Czech Republic IHE Europe Tutorial Geneva, 10 October 2006

3. RMS team • Our team has a long history • Worked as a team for some 16 years • Went through all major changes in industry • First generation PACS (early 90s) • Coming of connectivity and DICOM (mid 90s) • Coming of integration and IHE (late 90s) IHE Europe Tutorial Geneva, 10 October 2006

4. How it started • At the beginning we were plagued with integration problems • Integration was the key issue • Standards did exist • Sometimes abused, sometimes misused • Vendors talked different languages • Total COO was uncontrollable IHE Europe Tutorial Geneva, 10 October 2006

5. How it started • For us, being indirect, this created issues • multiple dedicated interfaces • Each customer provided its own method of interfacing • even variations of exisiting standards • That meant a lot of effort • hard to predict and impossible to charge IHE Europe Tutorial Geneva, 10 October 2006

6. How it started • Luckily for us a solution was underway • RSNA and HIMSS sat down with a few vendors in the USA and designed IHE • Based on existing standards DICOM and HL7 • Allowing inter-vendor testing • A 5-year mission to boldly go where no man had gone before: real-world integration in healthcare IHE Europe Tutorial Geneva, 10 October 2006

7. An advantage • We soon realised how important this was for our business • Adoption of a single “philosophy” • A straight-forward integration with our customers • Testing integration with our customers before even having business with them • Smoother deployments IHE Europe Tutorial Geneva, 10 October 2006

8. Our IHE history • First participated at IHE in the USA in 1999 • Connect-a-thon and demonstration in Chicago (RSNA) • Since 2000 IHE has spread “operations” in Europe • Connect-a-thon and demonstration in Paris (JFR) IHE Europe Tutorial Geneva, 10 October 2006

9. Our IHE history • We’ve taken part in a total of 13 connect-a-thons since 1999 • 6 in the USA • 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 • 7 in Europe • 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 • In 2002 turned “contributors” to IHE • Contributed substantially to PDI integration profile IHE Europe Tutorial Geneva, 10 October 2006

10. What then.. • IHE development is part of our R&D process • Frame of reference • Model • All pieces of software we developed and tested under IHE are part of marketed products IHE Europe Tutorial Geneva, 10 October 2006

11. IHE value • IHE has brought major assets to our business • vendor-neutral integration • We finally are able to discuss and solve integration • from a “neutral” technical standpoint • …and with inter-vendor testing IHE Europe Tutorial Geneva, 10 October 2006

12. IHE value • Effort for custom integration has been eliminated • Gained ability to test • Has created a new “philosophy” • Answers can be found in the TF IHE Europe Tutorial Geneva, 10 October 2006

13. Thanks for your attention • Any questions? www.rasnamedical.com IHE Europe Tutorial Geneva, 10 October 2006