Interoperability in Healthcare can be understood as the ability to exchange, share, interpret data cohesively by various healthcare entities.

According to Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), “Data exchange schema and standards should permit data to be shared across clinician, lab, hospital, pharmacy, and patient regardless of application or application vendor.

Interoperability means the ability of health information systems to work together within and across organisational boundaries in order to advance the effective delivery of healthcare for individuals and communities.”

Why interoperability is necessary for healthcare?

It is quite common for patients to seek medical care from different clinics or hospitals. The medical history of a patient is created by the individual records maintained by the different medical practitioners whom the patients visit. Patient history comprises details such as past symptoms, allergies, procedures, etc. If the entire medical history is not consolidated and maintained, it is inconvenient for the patient and it affects the quality of medical care being provided.

If there is a system of integrating all the medical data from different sources, a comprehensive medical history of the patient is available. This helps the doctor to provide a treatment based on the history of the patient.

Most countries have now moved to a system of maintaining e-records, which are online records that can be easily accessed by different entities. This facilitates collaborative diagnosis and treatment leading to better outcomes. It also offers the patient complete visibility of the data. Patients have more control over their data minimising the administrative burden.

Interoperability offers easy and quick access to real-time results which cuts down repetitive tasks. This offers healthcare professionals more time and they can treat more patients.

In Conclusion

Interoperability is a must in the healthcare sector because it offers better collaboration and management of patients’ data. This results in a better quality of treatment in lesser time.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
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The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

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• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
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You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

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