AEGIS Announces Touchstone for HL7 FHIR Interoperability Testing

ROCKVILLE, Md., Nov. 12, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AEGIS.net, Inc. (AEGIS), a leader in health information exchange standards implementation and the creator of the AEGIS Developers Integration Lab (DIL) introduces the Touchstone Project - a next generation cloud-based Testing Platform which applies Conformance and Interoperability testing in a Test-Driven-Development (TDD) integrated ecosystem.

As organizations new to the Health Level Seven® (HL7®) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) specification begin to explore and evaluate this new HL7® standard and start projects with a goal of being an early adopter, AEGIS' Touchstone Test Platform will guide those implementations towards a high degree of conformance and interoperability in a continuous model.

AEGIS unveiled the Touchstone Project joining a distinguished group of Health IT industry leaders at the HL7® International 29th Annual Plenary & Working Group Meetings in Atlanta, GA October 5-9, 2015.  The HL7® event was kicked off with the largest ever audience for the HL7® FHIR® Connectathon in which more than 120 attendees participated.

Health Intersections Pty Ltd. Principal, Grahame Greives, often referred to as the Father of FHIR® commented: "The most recent HL7 FHIR Connectathon 10 - which coincided with HL7 Plenary event in Atlanta GA - advanced the focus around Testing and the Quality of FHIR Implementations. AEGIS was a key contributor, providing a Cloud based Solution which allowed developers to Test their FHIR Implementations. Many participants made use of this to follow Test-Driven-Development (TDD) methodology, and we appreciated how this led to more interoperable solutions."

Orion Health's David Hay kicked off the HL7® Connectathon by introducing the FHIR® Tracks such as Track 1 – Patient (lead by David Hay), Track 2 – Terminology Services (Robert Hausam), along with many other implementation tracks coming online.  During the HL7® FHIR® Connectathon, the AEGIS Touchstone Test Platform saw more than 17 Organizations register and test their FHIR® Implementations including Health Intersections, Furore, Mirth, Apelon, McKesson, CentriHealth and Mayo Clinic with more joining each day.

After its initial month of FHIR Testing, Touchstone has seen more than 185 unique test executions and counting.  Those organizations currently testing HL7® FHIR® against the AEGIS Touchstone Test Platform are encouraged to publish their HL7® FHIR Conformance Testing results for the public to witness.

Mario Hyland, Senior Vice President of AEGIS said: "AEGIS is proud to pilot this initiative with HL7® International and to bring its member organizations a unique benefit offering HL7®-FHIR® specific testing to ensure continuous conformance and interoperability through the AEGIS DIL, the Touchstone Project, and AEGIS' own WildFHIR FHIR implementation, an HL7® FHIR® initiative.  AEGIS was impressed with those HL7® FHIR® Connectathon participants who elected to engage in testing with Touchstone. EHR vendors and other Health IT product vendors benefited from leveraging TDD to quickly see that testing against a common Test Platform helps to ensure HL7® FHIR® is built from the ground up being Interoperable."

Angela Ciminnisi, Director of Product Management for Mirth noted: "Participating in the HL7® FHIR® Connectathon demonstrates our long lasting support of Healthcare initiatives which seek to deliver Interoperable solutions.  The Mirth Connect product continues to advance and the inclusion of HL7® FHIR® technologies is a natural progression of our Product and Platform.  During the HL7® FHIR® Connectathon we were pleased to participate with AEGIS and their Touchstone Test Platform.  We were able to quickly leverage a TDD methodology and during the two-day Connectathon identify a number of FHIR® conformance issues, resolve the issues and retest immediately."

Charles Jaffe, MD PhD and CEO of HL7® stated: "Iterative testing remains at the heart of agile development. Valid conformance is critical to both the developers and to the end-user community. Iterative testing drives quality and patient safety, and supports innovation. A successful testing program also provides FHIR development teams at HL7 with the essential infrastructure that is critical for all of our stakeholders."

HL7® and AEGIS have recognized that FHIR has the potential to address one of Gartner 2015 Top Strategic Technologies specifically "Scalable Interoperability", with additional positive references included in Gartner Research Notes written to address the need for Robust Testing within the Healthcare Industry.

About AEGIS.net, Inc. (AEGIS)

AEGIS.net, Inc. is a CMMI Maturity Level 3 rated, ISO 9001:2008 certified small business and premier provider of industry based standards implementation, Healthcare Solutions, and Information Technology consulting services to Federal Civilian, Defense and Commercial sector clients. Our services, delivered by practitioners averaging more than 15 years of experience, include Project Management, Software Functional and Performance Testing, Application Design/Development, Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V), and Organizational Performance/Process Improvement. Our domains of expertise include health IT, standards development and interoperability, regulatory compliance, finance, human resources, and logistics. AEGIS is recognized as a global community leader in innovation of Health IT interoperability, testing, analytics, and informatics.  For more information, please visit: www.aegis.net

About HL7®

Founded in 1987, Health Level Seven International is the global authority for healthcare information interoperability and standards with affiliates established in more than 30 countries. HL7® is a non-profit, ANSI accredited standards development organization dedicated to providing a comprehensive framework and related standards for the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information that supports clinical practice and the management, delivery and evaluation of health services. HL7®'s more than 1,500 members represent approximately 500 corporate members, which include more than 90 percent of the information systems vendors serving healthcare. HL7® collaborates with other standards developers and provider, payer, philanthropic and government agencies at the highest levels to ensure the development of comprehensive and reliable standards and successful interoperability efforts.

For more information, please visit: www.HL7.org

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Media contact: Ellen Wyly
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SOURCE AEGIS.net, Inc.