Overview
ISO/TR 28380-2:2014 - Health informatics: IHE global standards adoption, Part 2: Integration and content profiles documents the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) Integration and Content Profiles. It summarizes IHE’s profiles that constrain and combine international standards to support defined healthcare information‑exchange tasks. The technical report accelerates worldwide standards adoption to achieve interoperability of health information across applications, devices, enterprises and care settings.
Key topics
- Integration Profiles and Content Profiles: Describes IHE’s profile approach - combining existing standards into implementable workflows and specific content artifacts (e.g., documents, messages).
- Domain coverage: Summaries of IHE profiles across clinical and IT domains including:
- Anatomic Pathology (AP), Cardiology (CARD), Eye Care, Radiology (RAD), Radiation Oncology (RO)
- Laboratory (LAB), Patient Care Coordination (PCC), Patient Care Device (PCD)
- Pharmacy (PHARM), Quality, Research and Public Health (QRPH)
- Other domains (Endoscopy, Dental, Surgery)
- Process and testing: Overview of IHE development, testing and validation processes such as Connectathons (supervised interoperability events) and deployment-validation/production processes.
- Actors and transactions: Uses IHE concepts like actors (functional components) and standardized transactions for interoperability.
- Standards liaison: Explains how IHE profiles draw on SDO standards (ISO, HL7, DICOM, IEEE, IETF, OASIS) and feed back gaps/clarifications to those bodies.
Practical applications
- System integrators and vendors use the profiles to build interoperable health IT products that reliably exchange patient data across departments and care settings.
- Hospital IT departments and regional HIE projects rely on these profiles to plan implementations, reduce integration variability, and speed deployment.
- Standards developers and policy makers consult the report to understand how standards are profiled and adopted in real-world workflows.
- Test and conformance teams leverage Connectathon-style testing guidance to verify cross-vendor interoperability.
Who should use it
- IT departments of healthcare institutions
- Healthcare IT product teams (technical & marketing)
- Standards and interoperability experts
- Leaders of national/regional health information exchange initiatives
Related standards and guidance
- Companion document: ISO/TR 28380-1 (Process) - explains the IHE development process and is recommended reading.
- IHE Technical Frameworks reference foundation standards from ISO, HL7, DICOM, IEEE, IETF and OASIS.
ISO/TR 28380-2:2014 is a practical reference for anyone implementing or governing standards-based interoperability in healthcare, providing a consolidated view of IHE Integration and Content Profiles and their role in achieving consistent, testable health information exchange.