Conor Stewart
Research expert covering health & pharmaceuticals in the UK & Europe
Interoperability refers to the ability of a multiple of different systems across the healthcare ecosystem to access, exchange, integrate and cooperatively use data. This can be achieved across organizational, regional, and national borders. Improving interoperability in healthcare is crucial to ensure data essential to the care of a patient can be transferred from different healthcare systems, possibly using different operating systems. As of the end of 2021, a substantial share of physicians worldwide, including 71 percent in the United States, agreed that the volume of patient data available to them was overwhelming. While around half of hospitals in the U.S. reported managing this data would be the biggest hurdle to improving interoperability in healthcare and delivering an upgraded connected care experience.
Levels of interoperability in the U.S.
As of 2021, 62 percent of hospitals in the United States were functioning in all four domains of interoperability. The four domains of interoperability are the ability of health systems to electronically send, receive, find, and integrate health information with systems outside their own organization. The share of hospitals that are engaged in all four domains increased from just over 40 percent in 2017. Hospitals that were able to send and receive data electronically were already very common in 2017. However, the proportion of hospitals in the U.S. which can now integrate data has increased significantly. Roughly three-in-five hospitals used a state, regional, or local health information exchange (HIE) to send or receive data outside their system. Although in 2021, the most common method to send and receive care records remained via mail or fax. On average, hospitals in the U.S. used between three and four electronic methods to utilize health data sharing.What does the future hold?
According to a survey of the top 50 health systems in the United States, over half reported they planned in 2023 to spend between five and 20 percent more on interoperability compared to what they spent in 2022. None of the surveyed organizations indicated they would spend less on interoperability compared to the previous year. The two most cited reasons behind efforts to improve interoperability in healthcare in the U.S. were improving patient outcomes and optimizing clinical workflows and performance. In the U.S., a qualified health information network (QHIN) is a structure of organizations that function together to share data and facilitate interoperability between users and participants. Joining a QHIN is a prerequisite to the TEFCA (Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement) performing. The TEFCA was published in 2022 in order to create a countrywide system of safe and simple sharing of healthcare information, essentially enabling interoperability. In 2022, a third of EHR executives said they were aware of the need to join a QHIN and were actively exploring options.
