At the 2019 General Assembly Meeting, held during the IHE-Europe Connectathon in Rennes, IHE-Czech Republic was formally admitted as a member to IHE-Europe.
An excited Czech delegation led by co-chairs Jan Petřík and Jan Hůlek have worked exceedingly hard for a number of years with the Czech Ministry of Health (MOH) jointly fulfilling a 5-year strategy since 2017. This included strong efforts to promote the use of IHE Profiles in Czech Healthcare, following national interoperability proposals from international vendors including InterSystems and local vendors including C System CZ and Zdravel. There were also key supporting organisations involved including EUC (outpatient network), several University Hospitals and The Association of Regional & County Hospitals.
The decision to create a future Centre for eHealth and Digitalisation by the MOH and national delegation attendance at the 2019 IHE-Europe Connectathon Week, enabled the IHE-Czech delegation to convince existing IHE members that now was the right time for them to accede.
The IHE-Czech delegation had a number of hugely productive meetings in Rennes with IHE-Services representation, including Charles Parisot and Alexander Berler.
Jan Hůlek, on behalf of the IHE-Czech delegation, said, “Formally being part of IHE-Europe means our country will now be able to participate in the many and varied IHE activities within Europe and beyond. We will clearly benefit from our association with other member countries plus their vendor and user participants at a crucial time in the implementation of our healthcare interoperability programme. I would like to thank all who have worked so hard for this day to come about and I can assure we will be playing a very active role in IHE-Europe”.
In formally welcoming IHE-Europe’s newest member Jürgen Brandstätter, IHE-Europe vendor Co chair said, “I am truly delighted IHE-Czech is now part of IHE-Europe, they fully deserve their place at the table. I have no doubt their commitment and enthusiasm to roll out healthcare interoperability on a big scale, using IHE-Profiles, is both the right thing to do for their country and will also enable our organisation to benefit from the richness of their participation."
Jan Hůlek, on behalf of the IHE-Czech delegation, said, “Formally being part of IHE-Europe means our country will now be able to participate in the many and varied IHE activities within Europe and beyond. We will clearly benefit from our association with other 
