A new ‘plug and play’ collaboration engine has been developed as part of the project to achieve the level of security and interoperability between vendor systems necessary to support the showcase scenario.

Collaboration systems interchange messages based on XML Schemas, with the clinical payload within each message following accepted messaging standards such as HL7 v3.0, CDA and ASTM CCR.

The Showcase comprises “collaboration points” between applications as patient information is ordered, viewed and transferred with the patient from setting to setting.

This approach has clear architectural advantages, allowing interconnecting of systems with incompatible messaging approaches, and flexibility for future reconfiguration of the system. Once a collaboration has been defined, any participant within the system is then able to relatively easily reuse the defined collaboration adaptors.

The Showcase demonstrates the Microsoft Technology Stack, and the use of Microsoft's BizTalk Server 2006 and Visual Studio 2005 for implementation of the messaging system.   The deployment of the solution uses Microsoft Virtual Server to support the individual environmental needs of the collaborating systems.