IHE certification in Africa: what Yone-Wi's interoperability engine proves

Requests for proposals in digital health may carry a short line that weighs more than it looks: "compliance with IHE integration profiles". For ministries of health, development partners and hospital IT directors, it is an interoperability requirement that can actually be verified. In 2024, Eyone Medical's interoperability engine, Yone-Wi, obtained IHE certification, the first in Africa. This article sets out what IHE is, what a certification actually covers, why it matters in procurement and national programmes, and what the Yone-Wi certification does, and does not, allow anyone to claim.

For the broader picture (why health information systems fail to connect, what HL7 and FHIR do, and where French-speaking Africa stands), see our companion piece, Health systems interoperability: fewer disruptions along the care pathway. This article focuses on certification alone.

IHE at a glance

On its official website, IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise) describes itself as an initiative by healthcare professionals and industry to improve the way computer systems in healthcare share information. It develops workflow-based interoperability specifications and provides testing and validation capabilities.

According to the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM), IHE was established in 1998 as a joint effort of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). One point matters to any buyer: IHE does not write new standards. It selects the relevant parts of existing standards, such as HL7 and DICOM, and specifies how they must be combined for a defined clinical or administrative use.

Profiles, actors and transactions

IHE's General Introduction to its Technical Frameworks (revision 2.0, 2021) explains the model: each integration profile represents a real-world capability in terms of actors that interact through transactions. An actor is a functional role, for instance the system that publishes a document and the one that retrieves it. A transaction is the standardised exchange between them. Profiles are grouped into domain Technical Frameworks such as IT Infrastructure, Radiology, Laboratory and Patient Care Coordination.

By way of illustration, the profiles listed by IHE International for its conformity assessment programme include infrastructure profiles such as PIX (cross-referencing a patient's identifiers across systems), XDS.b (sharing clinical documents between facilities) and ATNA (audit trails and secure node authentication). These examples explain the logic of IHE. On their own, they say nothing about which profiles any given certification covers.

What an IHE certification covers

In practice, "IHE certification" can refer to different levels of evidence, and evaluators should tell them apart.

1. The IHE Integration Statement. According to the IHE wiki, it is a document prepared and published by the vendor to describe the intended conformance of its product with the IHE Technical Frameworks. It is a vendor commitment, not third-party verification.
2. The Connectathon. IHE runs supervised testing events where vendors connect their systems to other vendors' systems and perform the transactions required for the actors they have selected. Results are published in the Connectathon Results Database.
3. Conformity assessment. Under the IHE Conformity Assessment Scheme, IHE International authorises test laboratories accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 to assess products against selected IHE profiles. Their test reports are accepted worldwide, according to ihe.net.

Whatever the route, one rule holds: an IHE certification applies to a product, in a specific version, for named profiles and actors, at a given date. It does not apply to a company as a whole, to the full catalogue of IHE profiles, or to the quality of a particular deployment.

Why it matters in procurement and national programmes

National digital health programmes rarely start from scratch. Senegal's Digital Health Strategic Plan (PSSD) 2018-2023 noted that a 2015 assessment had identified more than 50 eHealth and mHealth initiatives in the country, described as fragmented, uncoordinated and often non-interoperable. The plan set the goal of a national reference framework for health information system standards and interoperability.

The same direction is visible at continental and global level. In 2023, Africa CDC published the African Union Health Information Exchange Guidelines and Standards. In July 2023, the World Health Organization signed a project collaboration agreement with HL7 International to support the adoption of open interoperability standards. In May 2025, the World Health Assembly extended the Global Strategy on Digital Health to 2027.

Against that background, an IHE requirement in tender documents does three things:

• It can be verified. "Openness" cannot be tested; a profile and an actor can.
• It protects public investment. A system that conforms to published profiles can exchange data with the systems that come after it, including those of other suppliers.
• It levels the field. Every bidder answers against the same reference, rather than describing a proprietary architecture.

Questions to put to any bidder

1. Which IHE profiles, and which actors within each profile, are covered?
2. Through which route: Integration Statement, Connectathon results, or a report from an accredited laboratory?
3. Which product, which version, and on what date?
4. Can the evidence document be reviewed?
5. Do those profiles match the exchanges your specifications actually require?

The Yone-Wi certification: what can be said

Yone-Wi is Eyone Medical's interoperability engine, the technical component that allows systems to exchange information. The following statements can be made as they stand:

• Eyone Medical's interoperability engine, Yone-Wi, obtained IHE certification in 2024;
• this is the first IHE certification in Africa;
• the certification applies to the Yone-Wi engine.

It forms part of the track record of Eyone Medical, founded in 2015 and operating in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and Gabon. In 2023, Eyone Medical won the tender for the electronic health record of Senegal's national health system, piloted in 2024. In 2025, it won the tender for the mandatory health insurance interoperability platform, which will connect the country's 177 IPMs (employer-based health insurance institutions) to all health facilities. These programmes are separate facts: they show the scale at which interoperability questions arise, not an outcome of the certification.

Across our products, interoperability is what links Medical IS for health facilities, Eyassur for insurers and IPMs, and the Medical Passport for patients. Our solutions overview sets out what each one does.

What cannot be said

• "Eyone is IHE certified." The certification applies to the engine, not to the company.
• "Compliant with all IHE profiles." No IHE certification covers every profile; it covers a defined list.
• "Every product and every deployment is certified." Certification qualifies one component in one version, not each installation.
• "FHIR certified." FHIR is an HL7 International standard; an IHE certification is not a FHIR certification.
• A health outcome. Interoperability is a technical precondition for coordinated care; it does not treat anyone. Eyone Medical is not a medical device and claims no such status.

If you are assessing a bid or preparing a programme, bring us your questions about this certification.

Request a demonstration of the Eyone Medical platform and bring your interoperability questions to our team.

Frequently asked questions

What is an IHE certification?

It is evidence that a product, in a given version, correctly implements specific IHE integration profiles. Depending on the route, that evidence comes from Connectathon results or from a report issued by an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory under IHE International's conformity assessment programme.

Does an IHE certification apply to a whole company?

No. It applies to a product. In Eyone Medical's case, the IHE certification obtained in 2024, the first in Africa, applies to the Yone-Wi interoperability engine. The result document can be provided on request to a buyer or partner: please contact our team.

How do IHE, HL7 and FHIR differ?

HL7 International publishes exchange standards, including HL7 Version 2 and FHIR. IHE does not write standards: it defines profiles that specify how existing standards are combined for a given use. Our article on health systems interoperability explains the role of each.

How can an IHE certification be checked in a tender?

Ask for the list of profiles and actors, the testing route, the product and version, the date and the evidence document. Then compare those profiles with the exchanges your specifications actually require.