IHE ITI Technical Framework
  • IHE IT Infrastructure (ITI) Technical Framework, Volume
    Revision 20.0, August 4, 2023 – Final Text
The Final Text ITI Technical Framework is published here in HTML format and is no longer published as PDF. Trial Implementation supplements are available from the Volume 1 Table of Contents.

1 Introduction

This document, Volume 4, of the IHE IT Infrastructure (ITI) Technical Framework describes the country-specific extensions to ITI transactions and content modules.

1.1 Introduction to IHE

Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) is an international initiative to promote the use of standards to achieve interoperability among health information technology (HIT) systems and effective use of electronic health records (EHRs). IHE provides a forum for care providers, HIT experts and other stakeholders in several clinical and operational domains to reach consensus on standards-based solutions to critical interoperability issues.

The primary output of IHE is system implementation guides, called IHE Profiles. IHE publishes each profile through a well-defined process of public review and trial implementation and gathers profiles that have reached final text status into an IHE Technical Framework, of which this volume is a part.

For more general information regarding IHE, refer to www.ihe.net . It is strongly recommended that, prior to reading this volume, readers familiarize themselves with the concepts defined in the IHE Technical Frameworks General Introduction .

1.2 Intended Audience

The intended audience of IHE Technical Frameworks Volume 4 is:

  • Those interested in integrating healthcare information systems and workflows on an international or country basis
  • IT departments of healthcare institutions
  • Technical staff of vendors participating in the IHE initiative
  • Experts involved in standards development

1.3 Overview of Volume 4

This volume contains information about the scope of national extensions to the transactions and/or content modules defined in the IHE IT Infrastructure (ITI) Technical Framework. Section 2 describes the permitted scope of national extensions and the process by which national IHE initiatives can propose such extensions for approval by the IHE Technical Committee and documentation in the IHE Technical Framework. Section 3 and beyond describe the national extensions, per country, which have been defined. Examples include specific transaction or content changes for IHE Canada, IHE Germany, IHE Japan.

1.4 Comment Process

IHE International welcomes comments on this document and the IHE initiative. They can be submitted by sending an email to the co-chairs and secretary of the IT Infrastructure domain committees. See http://ihe.net/ITI_Public_Comments .

1.5 Copyright Licenses

IHE International hereby grants to each Member Organization, and to any other user of these documents, an irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free, nontransferable, nonexclusive, non-sublicensable license under its copyrights in any IHE Profiles and Technical Framework documents, as well as any additional copyrighted materials that will be owned by IHE International and will be made available for use by Member Organizations, to reproduce and distribute (in any and all print, electronic or other means of reproduction, storage or transmission) such IHE Technical Documents.

The licenses covered by this Copyright License are only to those copyrights owned or controlled by IHE International itself. If parts of the Technical Framework are included in products that also include materials owned or controlled by other parties, licenses to use those products are beyond the scope of this IHE document and would have to be obtained from that other party.

1.5.1 Copyright of Base Standards

IHE Technical Documents refer to and make use of a number of standards developed and published by several standards development organizations. All rights for their respective base standards are reserved by these organizations. This agreement does not supersede any copyright provisions applicable to such base standards.

Health Level Seven, Inc. has granted permission to IHE to reproduce tables from the HL7® standard. The HL7 tables in this document are copyrighted by Health Level Seven, Inc. All rights reserved. Material drawn from these documents is credited where used.

HL7 and CDA are the registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International and the use does not constitute endorsement by HL7.

1.6 Trademark

IHE ® and the IHE logo are trademarks of the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society in the United States and trademarks of IHE Europe in the European Community. They may only be used with the written consent of the IHE International Board Operations Committee, which may be given to a Member Organization in broad terms for any use that is consistent with the IHE mission and operating principles.

1.7 Disclaimer Regarding Patent Rights

Attention is called to the possibility that implementation of the specifications in this document may require use of subject matter covered by patent rights. By publication of this document, no position is taken with respect to the existence or validity of any patent rights in connection therewith. IHE International is not responsible for identifying Necessary Patent Claims for which a license may be required, for conducting inquiries into the legal validity or scope of Patents Claims or determining whether any licensing terms or conditions provided in connection with submission of a Letter of Assurance, if any, or in any licensing agreements are reasonable or non-discriminatory. Users of the specifications in this document are expressly advised that determination of the validity of any patent rights, and the risk of infringement of such rights, is entirely their own responsibility. Further information about the IHE International patent disclosure process including links to forms for making disclosures is available at http://ihe.net/Patent_Disclosure_Process . Please address questions about the patent disclosure process to the secretary of the IHE International Board: secretary@ihe.net .

1.8 History of Document Changes

Date Document Revision Change Summary
2014-09-23 11.0 Newly created Volume 4 - Create and add US Data Segmentation for Privacy (DS4P)
2015-09-18 12.0 Add German and French Extensions
2016-09-09 13.0

Updated revision and date and removed copyright footer on each page and replaced with footnotes when applicable.

2017-07-21 14.0 Updated revision and date to coincide with updates to other volumes.
2018-07-24 15.0 Integrated CP-ITI-749 – Structure of the ZBE segment (PAM Profile)
2019-07-12 16.0 Updated revision and date to coincide with updates to other volumes.
2020-07-20 17.0 Updated revision and date to coincide with updates to other volumes.
July 2021 ITI TF Rev. 18.0 Integration of approved CPs
June 2022 ITI TF Rev. 19.0 Integration of approved CPs
August 2023 ITI TF Rev. 20.0 Integration of approved CPs.