Canada to Host the 2025 IHE North America Connectathon Week

TORONTO, Oct. 17, 2024 /CNW/ – The IHE North America Connectathon Week, one of the world’s most significant digital health interoperability testing events, is coming to Canada for the first time. Set to take place in Toronto from February 3-7, 2025, this event will gather hundreds of health IT professionals from around the globe to collaborate, innovate, and advance the future of healthcare. The North America Connectathon Week is one of a series of IHE Connectathon events held each year around the world, including in Europe, Japan, Australia, China and Korea.

Hosted by Canada Health Infoway and organized in partnership with IHE Canada and IHE USA, with support from IHE International, IHE Catalyst, HIMSS USA, and RSNA, the Connectathon Week is renowned for its rigorous testing protocols and its ability to drive meaningful advancements in healthcare interoperability.

Interoperability, the seamless exchange of data between different health information systems, is essential for ensuring healthcare providers have accurate, up-to-date patient information, ultimately leading to improved patient outcomes. The Connectathon Week serves as a vital opportunity not only to validate and refine these health systems, ensuring they meet the highest interoperability standards, but also to accelerate our progress in advancing connected care more rapidly than ever before.

This year’s event will feature the IHE Connectathon Testing Event, Pan-Canadian Projectathon, IHE Plugathon, Experience Days, and will include a number of other components still being planned, such as master classes, demonstrations, and additional opportunities for North America’s digital health stakeholders to engage. Each event is designed to foster collaboration and provide participants with invaluable insights, real-time collaboration, and networking opportunities.

The Bill Majurski Interoperability Research Award Program (IRAP) is now available. IRAP is a scholarship that offers free system registration to support participating organizations that are serving to advance interoperability by implementing new IHE profiles in key, strategic areas such as public or global health. Learn more and apply here.

2025 IHE North America Connectathon Week Overview

• IHE Connectathon Testing Event: The IHE Connectathon Testing Event provides a transformative experience in a unique non-competitive testing environment where participants can collaborate with colleagues from around the globe and experience an unparalleled opportunity to reduce development costs, debug systems in minutes, and leverage the expertise of top industry professionals to advance their digital health solutions. With two decades of standards development and test tools from IHE International, IHE USA, IHE Canada, and IHE Catalyst, participants will gain invaluable insights and networking opportunities with hundreds of top professionals at the largest interoperability testing event globally.
• Pan-Canadian Projectathon: Participants will accelerate their pan-Canadian interoperability readiness at the Projectathon testing event, which will bring together stakeholders from across Canada to test and validate their systems’ pan-Canadian interoperability. Participants will engage in rigorous testing and collaborative problem-solving to ensure their digital health solutions can seamlessly integrate with systems nationwide. By fostering a collaborative and innovative atmosphere, the Projectathon helps streamline the adoption and implementation of interoperable health solutions across the country, ultimately enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the healthcare system.
• IHE Plugathon: Participants will experience cutting-edge digital health innovation at the Plugathon Testing Event. This unique educational and exploratory testing opportunity provides a platform for innovators to learn, share experiences, and test their interoperability readiness without the formality of the structured Connectathon format. Attendees will engage with a community of experts to innovate through real-time connections with the APIs of digital health product solutions, all in a standardized format. Participants will propel their projects forward and showcase novel innovations that are rarely seen on an international stage at such an early stage of development.
• Experience Days: Participants will learn about global interoperability initiatives and pan-Canadian as well as US digital health innovations through conference-style presentations and masterclass education sessions. Experience Days offer a rich program of educational and networking opportunities, allowing attendees to gain insights from leading experts and connect with peers from around the world.

The 2025 Connectathon Week offers a truly unique opportunity for health IT professionals, software developers, healthcare providers, policymakers, and industry leaders to collaborate on critical aspects within the healthcare ecosystem essential for delivering interoperability. This event brings together the often-separated worlds of technical testing in digital health and the strategic implementation of healthcare policies and business practices, providing a rare but critical opportunity for close and immediate collaboration.

The event will be held at the InterContinental Toronto Centre, offering an inspiring setting for both technical and business audiences. Participants will engage in hands-on testing, attend educational sessions, and network with peers, all contributing to the broader goal of improving healthcare outcomes through better technology.

Registration Information

For more information and to register for all events and hotel accommodations at IHE North America Connectathon Week 2025, visit IHE North America Connectathon Week 2025.

• IHE Connectathon System Registration: Now open until November 8, 2024
• Pan-Canadian Projectathon: Now open until November 30, 2024
• IHE Plugathon
• Experience Days: Now open until January 13, 2025

Quotes

“We are excited to bring this global event to Canada, where it will not only showcase the progress we’ve made in digital health but also push the boundaries of what’s possible in healthcare interoperability. Our goal is to provide a platform for technical experts and business leaders alike to collaborate and innovate, driving advancements that will benefit patients worldwide.” — Attila Farkas, Chief Interoperability Strategist at Canada Health Infoway

“The Connectathon Week has been at the forefront of interoperability for over 25 years, and bringing it to Canada represents a significant milestone. This event will empower participants to test their solutions in a non-competitive, collaborative environment, ensuring they are ready to meet the challenges of a connected healthcare system.” — Dave Mendelson, MD FACR, Associate Chief Medical Information Officer, Mount Sinai Doctors Faculty Practice, IHE International Board Member

“Interoperable health IT systems are the foundation of a modern healthcare system. The Connectathon Week is an essential step in achieving this, and we are proud to support this event as it brings together industry leaders to drive innovation and improve healthcare outcomes.” — Christina Caraballo, Vice President, Informatics, HIMSS; IHE USA President

“Connectathon Week is an essential event for addressing the technical challenges in health IT. It provides participants with the opportunity to reduce development costs, rapidly debug systems, and draw on the expertise of leading professionals. As one of North America’s most valuable opportunities for advancing interoperability, this collaborative testing environment is crucial for enhancing patient outcomes both locally and globally.” — Daniel Berezeanu, Gazelle Product Manager , IHE Catalyst

About IHE Canada

IHE Canada is the national Deployment Committee for IHE activities in Canada, and the IHE Canada Community. IHE Canada is sponsored by Canada Health Infoway, and exists as a forum for health care professionals, the health information industry, and government administrators to collaborate to improve the way health care technologies and systems share information. Our Forum strives to expand the knowledge of our community to play a key role in guiding the development of IHE and determining priorities for integration through developing and implementing standards-based solutions for information sharing. IHE Canada will play a critical role in advancing connected care across the country.

About IHE USA

IHE USA is a not-for-profit organization established in 2010 that operates as a deployment committee of IHE International®. The mission of IHE USA is to drive adoption of standards-based interoperability to improve patient care through innovation, standards profiling, testing, education and collaboration. IHE USA improves the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare delivery by supporting the deployment of standards-based electronic health record systems, facilitating the exchange of health information among care providers, both within the enterprise and across care settings, and enabling local, regional and national health information networks in the United States, all in a manner consistent with participation in the activities of IHE International, Inc

About Canada Health Infoway

At Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) we believe a more connected and collaborative system is a healthier system, and one that leads to better health outcomes for all Canadians. By leveraging digital technologies and innovations, we’re working with governments, healthcare organizations, clinicians, and patients to advance connected care across the country. This improves care coordination, empowers patients to have a more active role in managing their health, and equips care providers with information and insights to support better care both at the point of care and throughout their patients’ health journey. Most importantly, it modernizes our health care system towards a future with patient-centered care at its heart.

We’re an independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the federal government and accountable to our Board of Directors and Members of the Corporation (Canada’s 14 federal, provincial and territorial deputy ministers of health). Infoway is led by a team of seasoned professionals who are specialists in their respective fields, including health care, administration, information technology and privacy. Visit us online at www.infoway-inforoute.ca.

For media inquiries based in Canada, please contact:

Haley Armstrong
Director, Public Relations and Communications
Canada Health Infoway
harmstrong@infoway-inforoute.ca

For media inquiries based in US or International, please contact:

Kathy Silverstein
kathleen@onthemarcmedia.com

SOURCE Canada Health Infoway