Healthcare Interoperability in 2022: Problems and Solutions

What is Interoperability?

How Does Interoperability Benefit Healthcare?

Better Quality of Medical Services

Greater Efficiency

Lesser Expenses

Better Protection of Private Data

improves coordination in healthcare (according to 86% of respondents);

improves the quality of medical care (71%);

increases the satisfaction of doctors (63%); and

reduces the degree of exposure of patients to radiation (42%).

What Are Interoperability Problems?

How to Solve Interoperability Issues in Healthcare?

Mass adoption of open application programming interfaces (APIs);

Creation of an integrated governance structure among stakeholders to improve data integrity;

Agreement on the exchange of data between healthcare stakeholders;

Introduction of unified messaging standards for medical data; and

Building consensus on interoperability standards.

What Are Interoperability Standards in Digital Health?

HL7

Version 2.x Messaging Standard - an interoperability specification for health and medical transactions

Version 3.x Messaging Standard - an interoperability specification for health and medical transactions

CDA (Clinical Document Architecture) - a clinical document exchange model based on HL7 version 3

CCD (Continuity of Care Document) - US specifications for the exchange of medical reports based on the CDA

SPL (Structured Product Labeling) - published information that accompanies a drug based on HL7 version 3

CCOW (Clinical Context Object Workgroup) - interoperability specifications for visual integration of user applications

FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) - a standard for resource exchange

Arden syntax - a grammar for representing medical conditions and recommendations in the form of a Medical Logic Module (MLM)

Apps for applications - a standard healthcare app to complement another healthcare transaction

Electronic Health Record (EHR) Functional Specification/Personal Health Record (PHR) systems - a standardized description of the health and medical functions that are required or available in such software applications

GELLO - a standard expression language used for clinical decision support

DICOM

CCR