Newsletter #12 - November 22, 2002

This memo summarizes the essential details of the Point of Care Connectivity Industry Consortium (CIC) MEDICA 2002 Meeting, held November 21 on the Roche boat "MS River" in Düsseldorf. Approximately forty attendees from throughout Europe joined representatives of the CIC and European standardization organizations for this important meeting on Europe-specific issues involving point-of-care connectivity.

In this issue:

• Executive summary
• Presentations
• Participants
• Next steps europe
• Source of supply the standard
• Attendees

The Connectivity Industry Consortium (CIC) held its fifth major briefing meeting for Point-of-Care organizations outside of the United States and the third European Initiative Workshop during Medica on November 21, 2002 in Düsseldorf, Germany. The briefing was held in conjunction with the MEDICA 2002 conference on one of the boats chartered by Roche Diagnostics . Thirty-nine individuals representing twenty-four international point-of-care (POC) organizations attended this meeting.

During Medica 2000, the CIC launched a European Round Table (ERT) with the goal of involving European users and vendors in the efforts and to internationalize the standard.

In 2001 the ERT reported on its progress and solicited further input from international POC users. Also, Thomas Norgall investigated the possibility of involving the Fraunhofer institute in developing prototype or demonstration implementations of the CIC protocols.

The Medica 2002 meeting provided an update on the internationalization process, the CIC organization, the standard implementation and further development of the standard. As well as the Frauenhofer institute realized their plan and presented a POCT-1A Demonstrator, showing communication between POCT-Device and POCT Observation Reviewer.

Thomas Norgall as Chair CIC Europe opened the meeting. Horst Merkle, Roche Diagnostics and CIC Vice President, presented the Objectives and Agenda. Thomas Norgall, Erlangen Fraunhofer-Institut für Integrierte Schaltungen, then updated attendees on the progress toward status quo of the standard approval by DIN, CEN and ISO, according the CIC Europe perspective. Next, Ken Levy, Roche Diagnostics USA, CIC Chief Financial Officer of CIC summarized the industrial perspective and status quo of the implementation of the standard. He also provided an overview of the sun-set activities of the CIC.

Christian Weigand, Erlangen Fraunhofer-Institut für Integrierte Schaltungen, presented the POCT-1A Demonstrator. An impressive demonstration of a communication between a POCT-Device and a POCT Observation Reviewer utilizing the POCT-1a standard.

Finally, Dr. Hilmar Luthe, University of Göttingen, presented the user perspective on connectivity and the need for implementing the POC connectivity standard POCT-1a.

Discussion arose on the plans to sun-set the CIC organization by mid 2003. The attendees agreed that there is still a lot of work left to be done on the European/international level to educate especially users on how the implementation of the POCT-1a standard supports cost effective multi-vendor connectivity. This issue was already addressed to the CIC and will be part of the sun-set strategy i.e. funds will be set aside to continue supporting the ERT initiative.

The following presentations are attached to the meeting minutes.

• Horst Merkle - Roche Diagnostics, CIC Vice-President, Objectives (Action Items) and Agenda
• Thomas Norgall - Fraunhofer-Institut für Integrierte Schaltungen IIS, Erlangen, CIC Europe Chairperson, CIC Europe - Status Quo of the Standard Approval in DIN, CEN and ISO
• Ken Levy - Walker InformaticsRoche Diagnostics, CIC Chief Financial Officer, CIC USA - Industrial Perspective and Status quo of Implementation of the Standard
• Hilmar Luthe, University of Göttingen, CIC Europe - User Perspective and the Need of an POC-Standard
• Horst Merkle - Roche Diagnostics, CIC Vice-President: Discussion, Q&A
• Thomas Norgall - Fraunhofer-Institut für Integrierte Schaltungen IIS, Erlangen, CIC Europe Chairperson, Next Steps Europe and Closing

Approximately forty individuals representing twenty-eight different organizations attended the briefing, as summarized in the following two tables.

Participants represented the in-vitro diagnostics industry, information technology vendors, point-of-care users, federal healthcare organizations, Universities, healthcare consultancies, and other point-of-care related organizations. The following table summarizes the attendance by the type of organization represented.

A mailing list has been established to facilitate communication between individuals interested in European issues surrounding standardization of point-of-care connectivity. If you are interested in being added to this mailing list, or would like to distribute information to the list, please contact the CIC European Round Table General Secretary, Christina Rode-Schubert, at the following e-mail address: christina.rode-schubert@MBE.unisg.ch

Attendees of the Medica 2002 workshop asked where and how to order the POCT-1A Standard.

The POCT1-A is an approved standard of the NCCLS (National Committee of Clinical Standards) an can be ordered as follows.

Thirty-nine individuals from twenty-four organizations registered to attend the CIC Medica 2002 Briefing. The following table provides a detailed list of attendees.