Membership in professional associations and task forces

Bundesverband Gesundheits-IT – bvitg e.V., the German Association of Health IT Vendors, represents the interests of the German healthcare IT industry. In order to achieve this goal, the bvitg actively contributes to creating framework conditions that serve as a foundation for IT-based, modern and future-oriented healthcare. The association’s main tasks are the dialogue with all relevant actors in politics and healthcare self-government, the formulation of solutions for urgent healthcare IT issues, networking, the support of junior professionals and career development.

The association represents the leading German healthcare IT providers whose products are being used in up to 90 percent of the different inpatient and outpatient healthcare areas, including rehabilitation, care and social support facilities. More than 70 percent of the member companies operate internationally.

bvitg Service GmbH, a subsidiary of bvitg e. V., organizes “DMEA”, the association’s annual industry congress, and operates the Health IT-Portal.

Numerous and diverse medical specialties create biomedical images.  The DICOM Standards Committee exists to create and maintain international standards for the communication of biomedical, diagnostic and therapeutic information in those medical disciplines that use digital images and associated data. The goal of the DICOM Standard is to achieve compatibility and improve workflow efficiency between imaging systems and other information systems in healthcare environments worldwide.

DICOM is a cooperative standard.  Connectivity works because producers cooperate in testing via scheduled public demonstrations, over the Internet, and during private test sessions.  Every major diagnostic medical-imaging vendor in the world has incorporated the standard into its product design, and most are actively participating in the enhancement of the standard.  Most biomedical professional societies throughout the world support and participate in the enhancement of this standard.

Proposed standards are developed by working groups reporting to the Committee and are approved by the members of the Committee.  Standards are published by the secretariat and are international in scope.  The Committee is proactive to assure compatibility with related standards developed by other standards-developing and coordinating bodies such as ANSI, CEN, HL7, IEC, ISO and JIRA.

The German Health Alliance (GHA) consists of more than 100 leading German actors virtually from all sectors: private sector and industry, NGOs, civil society and foundations, science and academia. The GHA thus is covering a very broad range of health expertise while sharing a strong international focus.

More than ever, on top of the excellent solutions from single providers it nowadays requires complete solution packages of uncompromised quality which can be flexibly and modularly adapted to the widely varying specific needs and challenges. Quite unique with GHA – German Health Alliance is its focus and expertise on systemic approaches and strategies for improving health infrastructure. Innovation and partnerships are key drivers in the activities of GHA and its members. Therefore, GHA connects stakeholders from all sectors within its own network and far beyond including governments and international organizations.

This specifically enables the GHA to building reliable and sustainable long-term partnerships at eye level for jointly strengthening health systems, with specific focuses on Global Health and excellent, highest quality medical technologies, solutions & services necessary to broadly enhance health infrastructure and access to healthcare services. All this makes the GHA – German Health Alliance your dedicated and highly suitable access point to German health expertise.

Health Level Seven International (HL7) is the global authority on standards for interoperability of health information technology with members in over 55 countries.

The development of cooperation using communications, both within and between enterprises involved in health and social care, is the best approach for improving the security and quality for patients; promoting the health of citizens; and improving the efficiency and quality of care processes.

The globally acting Health Level Seven International Inc. (HL7) is dedicated to this task, together with approximately 50 international affiliates.

The goal of the IHE initiative is to stimulate integration of healthcare information resources to improve clinical care. IHE develops and publishes detailed frameworks for implementing established data standards to meet specific healthcare needs, and supports testing, demonstration and educational activities to promote the deployment of these frameworks by vendors and users.

VISUS is member of IHE International and an early member and sponsor of the IHE-Europe member organization as well as co-founder of the German IHE group. VISUS takes part at the European Connectathons continuously. The results can be found on the IHE-Europe Website: www.ihe-europe.net.