This is a companion article to the feature “Clinical Laboratory Connectivity.”
The following organizations are playing important roles in developing, disseminating, and supporting the implementation of connectivity standards among healthcare entities, including clinical laboratories.
College of American Pathologists (CAP), the leading organization for board-certified pathologists, serves patients, pathologists, and the public by fostering and advocating excellence in the practice of pathology and laboratory medicine worldwide. www.cap.org
Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) provides standards and guidelines for medical professionals through its unique consensus process. www.clsi.org.
Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is a global, cause-based, not-for-profit organization focused on promoting better health through information and technology. HIMSS leads efforts to optimize health engagements and care outcomes using information technologies. www.himss.org
Health Level Seven International (HL7) is a not-for-profit standards-developing organization accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and dedicated to providing a comprehensive framework and related standards for the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information that supports clinical practice and the management, delivery, and evaluation of health services. www.hl7.org.
Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) is an initiative by healthcare professionals and industry to improve the way computer systems in healthcare share information. IHE promotes the coordinated use of such established standards as the digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) and HL7 to address specific clinical needs in support of optimal patient care. www.ihe.net.
IVD Industry Connectivity Consortium (IICC) is a global, nonprofit organization dedicated to creating and encouraging the adoption of a unified connectivity standard to reduce the cost and variability of data exchange among IVD devices and healthcare informatics systems in clinical laboratories. It is the main sponsor and facilitator behind the LAW profile and the LIVD standards. www.ivdconnectivity.org.
Medical Device Innovation Consortium (MDIC), the first-ever public-private partnership created with the sole objective of advancing medical device regulatory science for patient benefit. www.mdic.org.
The Regenstrief Institute, headquartered at the Indiana University School of Medicine, is the developer of the logical observation identifiers names and codes (LOINC) system, a common terminology for laboratory and clinical observations. www.loinc.org.
Systemic Harmonization and Interoperability Enhancement for Lab Data (SHIELD) is an FDA-sponsored collaboration effort that brings together representatives of five federal agencies (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, FDA, National Library of Medicine, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology), IVD manufacturers, key healthcare systems, and 10 related international industry and standards development groups.
