Interoperability
IHE ACM
IHE Devices — Alert Communication Management (ACM) Integration Profile
Scope
ACM is an IHE integration profile for getting an alert — a physiological or technical alarm, or an advisory such as a workflow event — from a patient care device or system to a person's communication device, and reporting back what happened. An Alert Reporter sends the alert to an Alert Manager over HL7 v2; the Alert Manager decides who should receive it and on which device, and hands it to an Alert Communicator over WCTP; delivery status, read receipts, and operator responses flow back. The profile was previously named Alarm Communication Management and was renamed to cover advisories as well as alarms.
Where it applies in the room
- Routing bedside monitor, infusion pump, and other device alerts to clinicians' phones, pagers, and other endpoint devices
- Nurse-call systems acting as an alert source — the profile's own location-sourced use case is a patient pulling a nurse call
- Destination selection from configured nurse-to-patient assignments and nurse-to-device mappings
- Closed-loop status: delivery confirmation, read receipt, and accept/reject returned to the alert source
Key requirements at a glance
| Actors | Alert Reporter (AR), Alert Manager (AM), and Alert Communicator (AC), plus an Alert Consumer (ACON) that receives alerts without disseminating them. |
|---|---|
| Report Alert [PCD-04] | AR to AM over HL7 v2 (ORU^R40): a new alert, an update, or the end of an alert. One alert per transaction. |
| Report Alert Status [PCD-05] | Optional, AM to AR over HL7 v2: recipients, delivery confirmation, read receipt, and operator response. An AR that receives it must at minimum log it. |
| Disseminate Alert [PCD-06] | AM to AC over WCTP, for delivery to endpoint communication devices. |
| Report Dissemination Alert Status [PCD-07] | AC to AM over WCTP: success or failure of delivery to the endpoint and the operator's response. |
| Alert semantics | Alert type, priority, inactivation state, and escalation or de-escalation of priority are based on IEC 60601-1-8 definitions. |
Summarized for reference. Consult the source document for the definitive text.
Caveats
- The profile states that defining escalation actions when a notification is not responded to is outside its scope, as is consolidation of alerts. Escalation rules and timers remain local configuration.
- IHE frames ACM as a secondary means of notifying the appropriate person — a layer on top of local annunciation at the device or nurse-call system, not a replacement for it.
- Support for a profile, and for its options, varies by implementation. Ask for IHE integration statements and testing evidence rather than relying on a feature list.
- Documents and transaction numbers still carry the PCD prefix (for example PCD-04) after the domain was renamed Devices.
Source & further reading
- · IHE Wiki — Alert Communication Management overview — IHE
- · IHE Devices domain — profile list — publisher
- · IHE Devices Technical Framework, Vol. 1 — Profiles (ACM, section 6) — official text (PDF)
- · IHE Devices Technical Framework, Vol. 2 — Transactions — official text (PDF)
Related frameworks
Also known as
- IHE PCD Alert Communication Management
- IHE PCD Alarm Communication Management
- IHE Alert Communication Management
- Alert Communication Management
- Alarm Communication Management
- IHE PCD ACM
- IHE ACM
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