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Interoperability Defined by Healthcare Community

Sound like any technology we know??

Alliance officials announced last week that a large segment of the healthcare community has reached a consensus on a definition of interoperability: "In healthcare, interoperability is the ability of different information technology systems and software applications to communicate, to exchange data accurately, effectively and consistently, and to use the information that has been exchanged."





http://www.bio-itworld.com/hitw/newsletters/2005/07/12/14168
Interoperability Defined by Healthcare Community

July 12, 2005 |

Some 40 entities across the healthcare sector have endorsed a definition of interoperability that is seen as an important building block for full regional and national health information exchange.

"It's a small step but it's a step that needs to be done early in the journey," explains Rod Piechowski, vice president for technology leadership at the National Alliance for Health Information Technology (NAHIT, or simply the Alliance), a Chicago-based partnership of organizations with an interest in health-IT.

Alliance officials announced last week that a large segment of the healthcare community has reached a consensus on a definition of interoperability: "In healthcare, interoperability is the ability of different information technology systems and software applications to communicate, to exchange data accurately, effectively and consistently, and to use the information that has been exchanged."

The single-paragraph definition is part of a two-page explanatory paper that is not yet posted on the Internet. In that paper, the Alliance cites the four levels of interoperability described by the Center for Information Technology Leadership (CITL).

CITL has reported that a nationwide infrastructure of fully interoperable, standardized health-IT could save Americans $77.8 billion a year. (See http://www.bio-itworld.com/newsletters/healthit/2005/02/01/20050201_11762?printer-friendly-view=1.)

According to Piechowski, "We wanted to come up with a definition that could be used by people who don't do IT for a living." including politicians, healthcare policy-makers, and the general public. "We didn't want it to be a mystery what we were bandying about," he says.

"This really was meant to be something that could be found in a glossary or dictionary," Piechowski says. Going beyond that, he explains, would move it into the realm of an implementation guide.

"The exercise here is to demonstrate that healthcare can work well across the spectrum of stakeholders to agree on something so basic," Piechowski says. "We're not constrained because we're not getting into many of the details you would if you were developing a standard."

Groups offering their endorsement of the definition include the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, the American Medical Informatics Association, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, plus consulting firms, technology vendors, and healthcare delivery networks in several regions.

Piechowski says that the Alliance will submit the definition to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology this week and also will send copies to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and to members of Congress with an interest in health-IT issues.

The congressionally chartered Commission on Systemic Interoperability and the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology also will receive copies. Alliance president and chief executive Scott Wallace chairs the interoperability commission.