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Thursday, June 4, 2009
Interoperability: What Does It Mean? (8:02 AM)
Interoperability: What Does It Mean?
Emily L. Graham, RHIA, CCS-P, ASCRS/ASOA Associate Director, Regulatory Affairs
As explained by Margret K. Amatayakul in Electronic Health Records, A Practical Guide for Professionals and Organizations, Third Edition, basic interoperability is the ability of software and hardware on different machines from different vendors to share data. However, interoperability has been further defined in healthcare by the Office of the National Coordinator(ONC), Connecting for Health, and others to mean:
· The ability to exchange patient health information among disparate clinicians and other authorized entities in real time and under stringent security , privacy and other protections (ONC 2005b)
· 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 (NAHIT 2005)
· The ability of health information systems to work together within and across organizational boundaries in order to advance the effective delivery of healthcare for individuals and communities (HIMSS 2005)
· At the application level, interoperability means the capacity of a connected, authenticated use to access, transmit and/or receive/exchange usable information with other uses (Connecting for Health 2005)
Emily L. Graham, RHIA, CCS-P, ASCRS/ASOA Associate Director, Regulatory Affairs
As explained by Margret K. Amatayakul in Electronic Health Records, A Practical Guide for Professionals and Organizations, Third Edition, basic interoperability is the ability of software and hardware on different machines from different vendors to share data. However, interoperability has been further defined in healthcare by the Office of the National Coordinator(ONC), Connecting for Health, and others to mean:
· The ability to exchange patient health information among disparate clinicians and other authorized entities in real time and under stringent security , privacy and other protections (ONC 2005b)
· 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 (NAHIT 2005)
· The ability of health information systems to work together within and across organizational boundaries in order to advance the effective delivery of healthcare for individuals and communities (HIMSS 2005)
· At the application level, interoperability means the capacity of a connected, authenticated use to access, transmit and/or receive/exchange usable information with other uses (Connecting for Health 2005)
Labels: EHR, EMR, HIT, Interoperability
