What Are Profiles?

• A Profile is a document.

• It tells a user what can be accomplished by following the profile. (Claims)

E.g. you will be able to detect volume changes of greater than 20% in Stage I Lung Nodules which are 5mm in diameter or greater.

• It tells a vendor what they must implement in their product to state compliance with the Profile. (Details)

E.g. to comply, the scanner must be able to:

• scan a Mark-324 Chest Phantom, idenfity the smallest resolvable target, display the diameter of that target
• resolve targets at least as small as 2mm diameter
• scan patients according to the ACRIN NLST acquisition protocol

E.g. to comply, the quantification application must be able to:

• segment a nodule (automatically or manually), derive the volume, store it in a DICOM object
• run a user through a set of test data with known volumes and at the end display an accuracy score

• It may also tell the user staff what they must do for the profile claims to be realized. (Details)

E.g. to comply, the site CT techs must be able to:

• scan the patient within 10 minutes of contrast injection

E.g. to comply, the radiologist must be able to:

• achieve a score of 95% or better using their segmentation application on the Lung Invaders test set.

How do Profiles fit in the IHE Process?

• Users identify a high priority multi-system problem.

• Vendors & Users collaborate to document a standards-based solution (a Profile).

• Vendors confirm it works by testing their implementations with other vendors (a Connectathon)

How does QIBA differ from IHE?

• IHE mostly profiles engineering problems. QIBA also tackles scientific problems.

• When a profile claim is unvalidated or a profile detail cannot be defined until further research is done:
  • IHE declares the profile pre-mature and sets it aside until such groundwork is completed
  • QIBA locates, encourages, (and perhaps coordinates) getting the research completed so the profile can proceed

Why Have Profiles?

Accomplishing interesting things often requires multiple systems and people to work in concert and

If Standards were prescriptive to that level of detail...