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CONNECT Release 3.3

Enhancements and Improvements Being Built into CONNECT 3.3

In March 2012, the CONNECT development team will release the next major version of CONNECT….CONNECT 3.3!

After receiving guidance from the federal partners involved in the CONNECT project, CONNECT 3.3 will be enhanced with strategic features, performance improvements, maintenance fixes and software updates. Examples of these enhancements include:

  • Compliance with July 2011 Approved Nationwide Health Information Network Specifications: In July 2011, the Nationwide Health Information Network Coordinating Committee approved updated versions of the specifications supporting interoperability. CONNECT 3.3 will deliver functionality to support these updates for services like patient discovery, query for document, retrieve documents, document submission as well as the foundational specifications for messaging, web services registry and authorization framework which address SAML 2.0.
  • UDDI-Based Nationwide Health Information Network Specifications Backwards Compatibility: Implementing the July 2011 approved specifications will break interoperability with current production specifications, approved in January 2010. To address this challenge, CONNECT 3.3 will deploy services to support both January 2010 and July 2011 versions of the Nationwide Health Information Network specifications utilizing identification capabilities of the UDDI.
  • Technology Stack Upgrades: As part of becoming compliant with the July 2011 specifications and supporting SAML 2.0, CONNECT 3.3 will be upgrading Metro to version 2.1.1, Glassfish to version 3.1.1 and JDK to version 1.7.
  • Configurable Set of Services for Targeted Selection During Installation: During deployment, CONNECT 3.3 will allow for the selection of message type, supported specification version and total number of services to be deployed. Tailoring deployed services to production use cases will reduce operational overhead and improve performance.
  • Parallel Message Initiation and Processing (Fan Out): CONNECT 3.3 will provide the ability to fan out requests to multiple communities for service such as patient discovery and query for documents. CONNECT 3.3 will improve performance for these messages by removing wait times for message responses before sending a request to the next receiving system or community.
  • Enable CONNECT to be ready for a Clustering Environment: To deliver a method of supporting higher volumes, CONNECT 3.3 will be able to support multiple instances of the gateway working together. Clustering support will be enabled by adding functionality to support a shared state operations.
  • Provide Performance-Related Configurable Parameters: Product will include guidance for product configuration to assist with identifying possible areas where changes can be made to increase performance and deliver positive results.
  • CONNECT Version Backwards Compatibility (Gateway to Gateway; Gateway to Adapter): CONNECT 3.3 is being built to ensure the product remains interoperable with the last three versions of CONNECT and CONNECT 2.4.7. Capabilities will exist to shield gateway changes from customized adapters of the CONNECT community protecting investment by not requiring adapter updates.
  • Enhanced Implementation Instructions: The installation instructions for installation and deployment have been enhanced for thoroughness and usability.
  • Increased Testing Focus Areas and Scrutiny: Introduction of performance testing, coordination with ONC test team, and enhanced automated interoperability testing suite.