Healthcare interoperability is the reason why patients can send healthcare data from their Bluetooth-enabled blood pressure cuff to their provider’s electronic health record (EHR). It’s how an ER physician can access test results from a patient’s cardiologist with the click of a button.
We’re talking about healthcare interoperability—the ability of different information systems, devices, and applications to access, exchange, integrate, and cooperatively use healthcare data in a coordinated way. There are countless examples of interoperability in healthcare, all of which are completely behind the scenes, helping providers and payers render high-quality patient care every minute of every day.
What is healthcare interoperability?
Think of interoperability as a universal language that disparate systems like mobile apps, third-party systems, and EHRs use to communicate. They do this by using standardized healthcare data exchange architectures and application program interfaces (APIs). Without healthcare interoperability, healthcare providers and others wouldn’t have critical information at their fingertips, and data would remain siloed.
Why is interoperability important in healthcare?
Interoperability is important in healthcare because patients receive care from multiple providers working in multiple healthcare systems and may be on multiple payer panels. The need for seamless patient data flow is paramount.
Consider a physician in the ER treating a patient for a heart attack. Without healthcare interoperability with the local pharmacy, the ER physician wouldn’t be able to immediately access the patient’s medication list. Instead, they would need to ask the patient to recall every medication and dosage. This may not even be possible if the patient isn’t conscious. Even if the patient is conscious, he or she may not be able to provide accurate information. All of this impacts care delivery and the physician’s ability to provide the most effective and efficient care.
What data is exchanged via interoperable systems?
For hospitals and health systems in the U.S., the United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) has become the standard for defining, at minimum, what data elements must be interoperable. USCDI standards include patient demographics, clinical notes, care team members, health status assessments, encounter information, and more.
What are the standards for hospital interoperability?
USCDI says what specific data should be interoperable, but it does not define the technical standards in how the data should be shared. This is where standards come in to provide a common language and a set of expectations that support data exchange between systems and/or devices.
There are five types of standards associated with healthcare interoperability:
- Vocabulary/terminology standards
- Content standards
- Transport standards
- Privacy and security standards
- Identifier standards
What are interoperability levels?
USCDI establishes what data elements need to be interoperable. Standards provide the technical requirements to make the data exchangeable, but we must be sure the shared information is understood and used correctly because healthcare data can be complex. Interoperability levels consider the depth and context of the data to ensure a meaningful exchange of data.
Healthcare IT has four interoperability levels:
- Foundational – Establishes the basic standards necessary for one system or application to securely communicate with another
- Structural – Defines the format, syntax, and organization of data sharing
- Semantic – Enables the interpretation and understanding of data for use in clinical decision-making
- Organizational – Allows for seamless and timely exchange of healthcare data between organizations, entities, and individuals for workflows while accounting for organizational, legal, and policy parameters
What is a health information exchange?
A health information exchange (HIE) refers to the electronic transfer of clinical information between healthcare information systems while maintaining the meaning of that information. HIEs facilitate access and retrieval of clinical data to provide safe, efficient, and effective patient-centered care.
HIE can also refer to U.S. organizations that provide HIE technology and services. HIEs often work directly with communities to promote secure sharing of health data. More recently, HIEs have supported public health agencies in their response to public health emergencies like COVID-19, serving as hubs for rich healthcare data from a multitude of sources.
What are the benefits of healthcare interoperability?
Healthcare interoperability offers numerous benefits by improving efficiency, reducing costs, and enhancing patient care. It allows healthcare providers to share information seamlessly, preventing the duplication of tests and reducing the time patients spend repeating their medical history or retrieving insurance details. For instance, an ER doctor can access recent lab results from a specialist, speeding up decision-making and avoiding unnecessary tests. Additionally, interoperability streamlines administrative tasks, such as automating appointment reminders and sending prescriptions directly to pharmacies, ultimately reducing healthcare costs and improving patient outcomes.
Interoperability also plays a crucial role in preventing medical errors and improving clinical decisions. By enabling systems to alert providers about potential medication interactions, it helps ensure safer treatment choices. Moreover, interoperability facilitates patient engagement by allowing providers to share educational materials through patient portals. In research, it unlocks the potential for large-scale studies using real-world data and supports the development of digital medicine through big data analysis. Without standardized, interoperable data, technologies like artificial intelligence would struggle to provide accurate insights, making interoperability essential for building trust in digital healthcare innovations.
