The IHE-Europe Connectathon 2026, a major event in digital health, will take place from March 23 to 27, 2026, in Brussels, Belgium. Organized by IHE-Europe (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise), this international event brings together stakeholders from across the ecosystem each year to test and validate the interoperability of digital health solutions according to recognized standards.

A program structured around key highlights

Several events will take place during Connectathon Week 2026:

• the Connectathon, the main technical testing session where vendors and suppliers verify the interoperability of their systems according to IHE profiles in real-life scenarios;
• the IHE-Europe Experience Days (March 25–26), a strategic forum for discussions and exchanges on key digital health topics;
• thematic Plugathons (EHDS Primary Usage, Devices, openEHR), hands-on sessions focused on specific technologies and use cases;
• the Xt-EHR Projectathon, dedicated to testing the European Electronic Health Record exchange format (EEHRxF).

These activities make Connectathon Week a key event for European stakeholders, bringing together engineers, experts, IT leaders, vendors, and public authorities.

Key challenges at the heart of digital health transformation

Under the theme “Reaching the EHDS together: community, interoperability, and AI as enablers”, the 2026 Experience Days highlight the importance of the European Health Data Space (EHDS) as well as technologies such as artificial intelligence to support the deployment of more efficient, secure, and interoperable digital services.

Throughout the week, participants will discuss:

• health data exchange standards (IHE Profiles, HL7, FHIR, DICOM);
• best practices for implementation and testing;
• challenges related to compliance with European regulatory frameworks.

The Gazelle platform at the core of interoperability testing

As in previous editions, Connectathon IHE Europe 2026 relies on the Gazelle platform, developed by IHE and Kereval, to organize, execute, and monitor interoperability tests. This technical backbone allows participants to plan test scenarios, orchestrate system exchanges, track results, and assess compliance with IHE profiles.

In this context, Kereval provides expertise in using the Gazelle platform, supporting participants throughout the event. Their teams assist with onboarding, answer technical questions, analyze test results, and help resolve issues encountered. This support is key to ensuring smooth test execution and high-quality validation during the event.

European innovations tested in real conditions

Kereval teams are also involved in organizing events related to the deployment of the EHDS. For the Plugathons, Kereval will provide a testing environment to conduct initial trials of specifications developed as part of the Xt-EHR project. Work on test cases and tooling is carried out within European projects such as i2X and MyHealth@MyHands, in which Kereval is actively involved.

Kereval involved in medical imaging data sharing initiatives

Kereval is also strongly engaged in the field of medical imaging, promoting work carried out in France, particularly through the DRIM-M project (Medical Imaging and Nuclear Medicine Data). Insights from this work have been shared internationally and have contributed to the development of frameworks governing large-scale imaging data exchange.

Among the notable outcomes is the emergence of a new IHE profile, MADO, dedicated to medical imaging data exchange.