Ensuring Conformance & Interoperability NHIN Testing Leslie Power, NHIN Testing Lead (Contractor) Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT WEDNESDAY, 2:30–2:50PM

What is the NHIN? HIMSS A set of policies, standards and services that enable the Internet to be used for secure and meaningful exchange of health information to improve health and health care.

NHIN Specifications HIMSS Transaction Profiles Utilize exchange patterns for specific transactions In pilot Discovery and Information Exchange Services Rely on foundations to enable exchange patterns Patient Discovery HIEM Services Registry Query & Retrieve Docs Messaging, Security, & Privacy Foundations Enable private, secure, and interoperable communication of health information Messaging Platform Authorization Framework

How to Approach Testing the NHIN Specs »Within the network, two concerns must be realized: that each participating system conforms to the applicable NHIN specifications, and that each participating system can interact with the others »Conformance does not guarantee interoperability, so we include two testing components: Conformance Testing Interoperability Testing HIMSS 20104

Health IT Community NHIN specifications factory NHIN testing team NISTCONNECTHITSP Testing Tool Creation Testing Tools Test data Test cases NHIN Specs HIMSS 20105

Testing Process HIMSS (Internet Employing CA/UDDI) NHIN Interoperability Testing Lab NIST Conformance Tools 12 Candidate System

What NHIN Testing Is and Isn’t NHIN Testing Is…NHIN Testing Is Not… Testing to ensure conformance to specs Testing to ensure a system’s capability to interact (interoperate) with other NHIN participants for common business functions “Next-gen” Connect-a-thon QA testing Testing among partners Although in theory, passing interoperability tests implies interoperability between partners, some partners may prefer to conduction additional pre-production testing Connect-a-thon HIMSS 20107

Conformance Testing Tools Focused on validating a single system to single standards To test conformance to the NHIN specifications Downloadable testing tools that can be used during development Self-service via web Tools keep result log, accessible via URI Candidates enter success URI on conformance results form, submit form for validation NIST tools HIMSS 20108

Conformance Testing HIMSS 20109

Web-based HIMSS

Results HIMSS

Interoperability Testing Tools To test a candidate’s ability to perform common business activities with other NHIN gateways Testing based on scenarios – threading together individual test cases in basic business interactions Replicates common NHIN interactions Records candidate’s results Self-serve testing HIMSS

Architecture of the Interoperability Lab HIMSS

Candidate Setup Screen HIMSS

Reviewing Progress HIMSS

Reviewing Results HIMSS

NHIN Validation Testing supports validation Testing ensures that potential participants in NHIN exchange operate in a way that conforms with NHIN specifications Conformance Testing Interoperability Testing Validation confirms testing results and is an input to consideration for approval for NHIN participation HIMSS

More Information HIMSS Improving healthcare quality and efficiency by supporting secure information exchange Web:

Thank You 19 The participation of any company or organization in the NHIN and CONNECT area within the HIMSS Interoperability showcase does not represent an endorsement by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, the Federal Health Architecture or the Department of Health and Human Services.