Glossary, records and interoperability
What is interoperability in healthcare?
Interoperability is the ability of different health IT systems to exchange information and use what they receive without anyone retyping it. It rests on shared standards for the message, such as HL7 FHIR, and for the meaning, such as SNOMED CT and ICD-10.
Updated . Defined by the wai team for clinics, groups and health systems.
Also called health data interoperability.
Why Interoperability matters to a clinic
Every handover a clinic makes, a referral, a discharge letter, a lab order, a result, is an exchange of data. Where systems cannot talk, a person rekeys it, and each rekeyed line is a chance for an error and a delay the patient feels.
Interoperability works at two levels. The format has to match, which is what standards such as HL7 Version 2 and FHIR define,12 and the meaning has to match, which is what coded terms such as SNOMED CT and ICD-10 give.
Questions
What is the difference between interoperability and integration?
An integration is one connection between two named systems. Interoperability is the wider ability to exchange data using shared standards, so a new connection does not need to be built from scratch each time.
Sources
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