ITU and Continua Health Alliance are planning to organize an event to analyze recent developments in the e-health sphere, shed light on emerging product offerings, and assess the interoperability of e-health solutions developed in accordance with Continua’s Design Guidelines.
The four-day event will run 28-31 October 2013 at ITU headquarters in Geneva. It will uncover recent market developments and their implications for e-health standardization, but the chief purpose of the event will be to conduct interoperability tests following Continua’s Design Guidelines, which are currently being transposed into the draft Recommendation ITU-T H.IDGPHS ”Interoperability design guidelines for personal health systems”.
Clint McClellan, chairman and president of Continua Health Alliance, said that the afternoon of the 29th will, in addition, host a meeting of experts representing ITU, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 11073 Personal Health Devices Work Group (IEEE 11073 PHD WG) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to progress e-health standardization work of common interest to the three organizations.
The event’s first two days, 28-29 October, are free of charge and open to all. Market players will have an opportunity to demonstrate their latest products and attendees will be alerted to the importance of open, interoperable standards in building an effective e-health ecosystem.
Two-hour training sessions will be offered each evening, introducing attendees to ITU-T’s e-health standardization work.
30-31 October will host the interoperability testing component of the event, which will be restricted to participating organizations from ITU and Continua’s membership.
Manufacturers and service providers will test the interoperability of their current and planned e-health devices, applications, services and technology platforms; sharing the results of interoperability tests on a confidential bilateral basis, using tools such as nondisclosure agreements (NDAs).
Organizations showcasing their products or taking part in the interoperability testing will be charged a fee of USD 1,000. This fee covers the participation of one representative of an organization, and an additional USD 150 will be charged for each subsequent representative.
Insights gained from the exhibition and interoperability tests will feed into the standardization work of ITU-T Study Group 16 (Multimedia), and particularly into projects organized under Question 28/16 – Multimedia framework for e-health applications.
Continua Health Alliance is a non-profit, international industry organization dedicated to advancing personal connected health by promoting end-to-end, plug-and-play connectivity of personal health devices and establishing industry standards for interoperability.