epSOS NEWS: System testing moves towards pilot operation

A review of the first insights gained from the testing phase in Pisa: Projectathon #2

The second epSOS Projectathon took place in Pisa (Italy) from April 11th to 15th, 2011. Parallel to the regular IHE Connectathon, 13 epSOS Participating Nations from Europe and 2 companies took advantage of the chance to test the interoperability of their systems with the goal of exchanging cross-border patient data with other nations using the integration profiles developed by IHE.

Based on hard engineering work and the results gained from the first Projectathon held in Bratislava in November 2010, the Projectathon in Pisa focused on the preparation for the pre-pilot testing phase before entering into the real pilot programme which is scheduled for June 2011.

New participants from epSOS extension countries who attended the marathon testing event for the first time were highly excited about having the opportunity to test the interoperability of their systems with others.

 “It is so great to be part of this. Being shielded from regular work is the right way to focus on the development and bug-fixing of our system. Moreover, people are getting familiar (with the system) on the technical level and collaborating to solve problems,” says Artur Novek from the Estonian eHealth Foundation. 

Artur Novek - Estonia

Although the new Participating Nations only joined the project in January 2011, they are catching up to the already existing member states very quickly. According to Stéphane Spahni from the University Hospitals of Geneva, also one of the new contributing regions, the basics have already been installed. “Now we are ready to be interconnected with other systems. We are moving forward nicely!” he says.


Mustafa Yuksel

Turkey is also convinced that they will soon be able to put their systems into operation. They too emphasize that collaboration between the different Participating Nations is a decisive factor for the success of the whole epSOS project: “We were in contact with TIANI and FET almost every day. They supported us a lot to get this far,” says Mustafa Yuksel from Turkish SRDC Ltd.

Testing teams from nations that already participated in the first Projectathon also joined the testing again. “The Projectathon is the only way of testing systems and sharing problems with other healthcare organizations developing eHealth systems,” explains Celia Varela from the Regional healthcare Service of Castilla-La Mancha in Spain.

570 tests were carried out by the 15 participants based on the Patient Summary (PS), ePrescription (eP) and eDispensation (eD) epSOS services in order to identify if the healthcare systems are ready to meet the epSOS specifications. IHE monitors were able to verify the main service functionalities,  meaning that the essential technical challenge in the coming weeks will simply be to fix minor errors in the code and semantic issues. In addition to the technical work, legal issues remain which need to be solved before going into pilot operation.

With its professional event organization and good atmosphere among the participants, the 2011 Projectathon in Pisa is proof that the epSOS project is well on its way towards a successful pilot operation with real patient data.

PAT Testing Team Spain
PAT Testing Team Switzerland