• Back To Listing

Misys Open Source Solutions Demonstrates Leadership

Chicago, IL (January 15, 2010) – At today’s IHE Connectathon, the healthcare industry’s week long interoperability testing event, Misys Open Source Solutions (“MOSS”), a division of Misys plc (FTSE:MSY.L), announced that it had succeeded in testing two critical Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) profiles needed to run a health information exchange (HIE). The significance of this is that it is the first time that all the software needed to exchange electronic files in a healthcare community will be made freely available in open source. The demonstration of the newly developed software comes after MOSS successfully released its first IHE profile (PIX/PDQ under the OpenPIXPDQ Project) last February at the IHE Connectathon.

In this test, Connectathon examination monitors reviewed and passed two core MOSS server side components of the IHE IT infrastructure profiles: Cross Enterprise Document Sharing (XDS.b) with the Cross Community Access (XCA) profile (OpenXDS project) and the Audit Trail and Node Authentication - ATNA (OpenATNA project). These components together with OpenPIXPDQ provide an exchange operator the ability to identify a patient uniquely and exchange the identified patient’s clinical information, based on their consent, across disparate systems including hospitals, provider offices, labs, and diagnostic centers in a community. The implementation of the HIE may be performed in a federated (de-centralized) manner or centrally depending on the specific requirements of the community. Finally, any record that has been requested is then tracked for auditing purposes. All the MOSS components may be downloaded at the Open Health Tools forge through the MOSS website at www.misysoss.com . The Misys Connect ™ Exchange which is the collection of the open source assets, is the first fully open source exchange offered anywhere in the world. The software is offered under the commercially friendly Apache v. 2.0 license. Additionally, the MOSS Team has completed testing on the XUA (Cross-Enterprise User Assertion) profile and awaits final approval on the test results which are expected next week. XUA is important in authenticating a cross enterprise user across different communities. The MOSS suite of open source technology, which is standards-based, also provides the capability for local communities to share patient records with the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN).

“Today is the realization of a complex two year development project. We took on the challenge to create a standards-based, fully open source interoperability platform. The MOSS led community of developers, which includes our partners from the University of Cardiff and the NextGate Solutions company, has met the challenge and delivered. The potential impact of this accomplishment is significant as providers can only meet the government’s meaningful use requirements if it is able to electronically exchange patient information across the community with cross enterprise user assertion. The MOSS release will enable that exchange at a much lower price point” said Tim Elwell, VP of Misys Open Source Solutions. Elwell added, “Hartford Hospital helped us realize this accomplishment through their funding assistance and collaboration to build out these critical IHE profiles. The Hartford Community will be the first recipient of this technology as they go-live in February.”

When asked about the significance of the announcement, Steve O’Neill, CIO of Hartford Health Care Corporation, commented: “We learned about Misys Open Source Solutions (MOSS) at last year’s IHE Connectathon. The MOSS philosophy clearly aligned with ours and after a competitive evaluation process, we chose MOSS to build our exchange. The use of open source technology provides our community with the ability to create an exchange at an affordable cost. We have collaborated closely with the MOSS team to develop an HIE that will be a model for Connecticut. The open source model also reduces our risk as we are less reliant on one vendor for support. I’d encourage other CIOs to investigate open source options.”
 

The MOSS technology was tested alongside software developed by more than 70 other vendors, to prove that traditionally competitive systems are able to send and receive health information among one another. Upon completion of Connectathon, the results will be published on the event’s site (www.IHE.net) and the latest version of the MOSS software will be available at the OHT forge (www.openhealthtools.org).

Tim Elwell, VP of Misys Open Source Solutions added, “Our next big demonstration of the technology will be at the IHE Interoperability Showcase Booth #233 at the Healthcare Information Management Systems & Society’s (HIMSS) 2010 Annual Conference and Exhibition, held on March 1-4 in Atlanta. We are looking forward to it.”

Press Contact:
Dennis Mancinelli
Misys PLC
770-998-1320
dennis.mancinelli@misys.com