HealthCare IT News recently reported the recent award of a $730k grant by the US Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) to “pursue standardization of information integration technologies” [1].

The grant will be used to develop and further evolve the integrated clinical environment (ICE) of the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology’s Medical Device Plug-and-Play (MD PnP) organization. There are a number of efforts focused on standardization of interfaces among medical devices and electronic health records. However, key to the ICE activity is the focus on interaction and interoperability among medical devices using a standardized application interface (API). The standard belying the ICE activity is a modified (enhanced) ISO/IEEE 11073 protocol. This protocol allows for near real-time interaction among devices.

The initial focus of the activity will be in the surgical (operating room) space. However, this is only the beginning. A benefit of standardized interoperability is improved safety and an increased quantity of common interface-capable medical devices. The activity with TATRC is being funded through the small business innovations research (SBIR) program.

This is the direction that the industry is taking and the ability to support seamless integration of medical devices with each other and with health information technology (e.g.: electronic health records) is necessary for future evolution of the field and industry. I urge those in the field who have not already done so to research and inform themselves of the possible workflow impacts and benefits that medical device connectivity and seamless integration with electronic media would have within the scope of existing healthcare infrastructure. Access to data is the first necessary step towards its effective use in clinical environments.

[1] “The ICEMAN cometh, and it’s plug-and-play,” http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/iceman-cometh-and-its-plug-and-play accessed October 7th, 2009.