The proliferation of medical devices, combined with the advance of healthcare networks and the citizens' interest in managing their own health, makes the need for plug-in interoperability more evident than ever. In Europe alone more than 100 million ECGs are recorded per year, posing a grand challenge to high quality health services that are able not simply to register but also to process, analyze, and compare them.

Computerized ECG standards have been developed to allow full interoperability between ECG devices and a generic host system, standardizing both the communication and the data format. However, various reasons, including the lack of on-line certification/validation services and the lack of public awareness and legislation that would influence the major manufacturers, have locked us into a vast heterogeneous landscape of medical devices.

Currently only a few manufacturers have adopted the standards, while the majority still use proprietary solutions that impede the seamless integration of ECG devices into a multimedia electronic health record. The mission of OpenECG is to promote the consistent use of computerized ECG standards, paving the way towards their cooperative use inside the health-care community and allowing citizens, chronic cardiac patients or athletes to monitor their health and maintain their own comprehensive multimedia medical record. The 1^st OpenECG workshop sets out to stimulate the cooperative use of computerized ECGs by:

1. establishing the OpenECG network, opening discussion on relevant standard implementations and interoperability efforts,
2. exploring the market for on-line certification & validation services, and
3. motivating the creation and distribution of open-source and shareware tools for interoperability standards of computerized ECGs.

Topics

• Interoperability efforts/experience worldwide
• Certification/validation of ECG standards implementation
• On-going standardization efforts in medical devices
• Open Source and shareware tools for computerized ECGs
• Certification of e-health services with emphasis on telemedicine and telecare

Objectives/Expected Results

The workshop objectives are designed to be specific, measurable, achievable, results oriented and time bound. Thus the 1^st OpenECG workshop plans to:

• Assemble a critical mass that will form the core of the OpenECG thematic network: manufacturers & Industrial Advisory Board, software engineers & integrators, policy & decision makers (hospital managers, regional authorities, health professionals)
• Raise awareness regarding benefits from the use of ECG standards among GPs and Cardiologists
• Promote and support implementations and applications of established ECG standards for communication and file format (SCP-ECG standard: ENV 1064, ANSI/AAMI EC71)
• Identify driving forces and barriers to the diffusion of ECG standards
• Discuss implementations of existing standards
• Consolidate expertise in implementation and validation of standards
• Disseminate current interoperability efforts Explore the market for ECG interoperability standards
• Support interoperability efforts in computerized electrocardiography
• Collect, evaluate, and disseminate tools in the OpenECG Repository
• Prepare and announce the OpenECG Programming Contest
• Address interoperability challenges in the new paradigm of personal health management

Program Committee

S.C. Orphanoudakis, ICS-FORTH, Crete, Greece (Chair)
M. Bruun-Rasmussen, FUNEN, Denmark
F. Chiarugi, ICS-FORTH, Crete, Greece
C.E. Chronaki, ICS-FORTH, Crete, Greece
F. Conforti, IFC-CNR, Italy
P.J. Lees, ICS-FORTH, Crete, Greece
A. Macerata, IFC-CNR, Italy
R. Ruiz Fernandez, RGB Medical Devices, Spain
M. Tsiknakis, ICS-FORTH, Crete, Greece
C. Zywietz, BIOSIGNA, Germany

Organizing Committee

C.E. Chronaki (Chair)
F. Chiarugi
P.J. Lees
M. Prevelianaki, E. Giannoulaki (Secretariat)