While the health IT sector has made a big impact in terms of facilitating cooperation between electronic health records (EHRs). Interoperability requires a collaborative environment around healthcare technology infrastructure, data standards, and permissions, among other things. To simplify healthcare data exchange, health IT vendors and providers should work closely with support from governmental agencies to make continual progress on this path to true interoperability. The four basic functions required for interoperability: data gathering, data reception, data distribution, and data integration.

Five keys to simplifying interoperability in healthcare.

1. Wider Adoption of Data Standards

The standards for digital exchange of data to achieve true interoperability. HL7 has gained widespread adoption, yet room for interpretation means that there’s significant variance in how these standards are implemented. FHIR a newer specification developed by HL7, makes some strides yet shares some of the same concerns that exist with the HL7 standards. For instance, vendors may not implement all FHIR APIs, or they may not implement the complete APIs either scenario prevents true interoperability. The goal must be to shift from isolated data and participate in the industry process of building an interoperable healthcare ecosystem.

2. Choosing the Right Health Information Technologies

Healthcare organizations that continue to use inefficient or outdated technologies for data integration are going to find it difficult to make the transition. Their tech interface might be incompatible with the cutting-edge cloud technologies, or they may discover that their system simply does not support the modern data formats. These issues are common and require a reliable and advanced solution.

3. Improving EHR Integration for Better Point of Care Solutions

EHR integration is one of the most important use cases in healthcare interoperability. Interoperability can avoid the need for a clinician to work with diverse interfaces to obtain the data they need. According to health IT experts, doctors are far more likely to modify their treatment protocols if they are provided with relevant substantiating data right at the point of care.

4. Bringing More Uniformity in State Privacy Laws

The process of healthcare interoperability can go to the next level if there is more harmony between the rules and regulations related to healthcare data privacy. To achieve nationwide interoperability for the best possible patient care, providers in one state should be in a position to exchange vital health information with providers in another state.

5. Augmenting Patient Matching Capabilities

Healthcare interoperability gets further complicated if the patient matching technologies are not up to the mark. With unreliable patient matching systems, even if the healthcare providers manage to streamline other issues, they would still fall short of their objectives if the data is not attributed to the appropriate patients on the other side.

 

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