The 10th annual European Connectathon, a well-known testing platform, held in France (Bordeaux) was particularly successful this year. One of the most important results observed was that several IHE profiles were endorsed for national programmes in several countries where IHE national initiatives are active. IHE-Europe has proven throughout the last decade that the methodology used has showed good and effective results, mainly through their annual testing platform tackling interoperability in a pragmatic and concrete way.

At this year’s Connectathon, a total of 2,250 interoperability tests were carried out and of these 1,950 passed. 80 profiles and 94 systems were tested in five domains (Radiology, Cardiology, IT- Infrastructure, Laboratory and Patient Care Coordination) by 66 companies bringing together over 250 engineers. For the first time, the Connectathon was entirely managed by Gazelle, the test management tool developed by IHE (http://gazelle.ihe.net/).

This annual event also offered opportunities for other important activities to take place, such as meetings on international DICOM standards and ePharmacy but was also an opportunity to learn more through the workshops on EU-funded projects such as epSOS, HITCH and Smart Personal Health Systems. Besides industry and users, a number of prestigious participants attended, such as national and European institutions including DG Information Society.

IHE-Europe Co-Chair Peter Kuenecke realised that "Looking at the 10-year history of the Connectathon, we have seen a significant shift from a testing platform to a true European Forum on interoperability.” The 2011 Connectathon will be held at Leopolda Storica in Pisa from April 11 to 15.