What is interoperability in healthcare and why does it matter?

Interoperability in healthcare integrates multiple data sources to create a holistic, 360-degree view of patients. This approach allows health systems to identify and prioritize patients who need intervention the most. By informing decision-making for resource-stretched providers and creating a unified source of truth across healthcare systems, interoperability is essential for improving healthcare delivery.

Interoperability is the exchange of information

Interoperability means different IT systems and apps can talk, exchange, and understand shared data across many healthcare settings.

This seamless data exchange between systems such as electronic health records (EHRs), laboratory systems, and imaging systems ensures that healthcare providers have real-time access to comprehensive patient information. Effective interoperability improves care coordination, enhances patient outcomes, and reduces administrative burdens by creating a connected and integrated healthcare ecosystem.

In a recent webinar, Brendan Smith-Elion, Vice President of Product Management at Arcadia, and Joe Graffy, Director of Enterprise Partnerships at Arcadia, discuss interoperability, its biggest challenges, and how to overcome them. Stephanie Orosz, Solutions Engineer at Arcadia, demonstrates how technology tools can streamline interoperability.

A framework for interoperable healthcare systems

Interoperability requires a multi-faceted approach. This includes integrating various data sources, establishing reliable data transfer mechanisms, standardizing data structures, maintaining consistent semantics, and implementing effective data governance.

Each of these steps is critical to ensure that different systems can seamlessly communicate and exchange data, providing healthcare providers with a comprehensive view of patient information. Let’s explore these steps in detail.

Integrate diverse data sources

To enable operational efficiency and meet business goals, healthcare organizations must combine data from wearables, patient portals, outreach systems, and other sources to pair with claims and clinical data to complete the picture of a patient’s health and care.

Ensure reliable data management and transfer

Establishing reliable data transfer is critical to data integrity. This requires robust pipelines that can handle large volumes of data efficiently, ensuring that users can transfer data without loss or alteration.

Standardize data structure and schema

Standardizing data formats and schemas is essential for compatibility and ease of integration. Consistent data structures allow healthcare providers to interpret and use information easily, facilitating better decision-making.

Maintain consistent semantics

Maintaining consistency in data fields and terminologies ensures accurate data interpretation. Different systems often use different terms and formats for the same type of data. Standardizing these terms helps provide reliable and useful information to healthcare providers. It ensures that all systems “speak the same language.”

Implement effective data governance

Developing and enforcing data governance policies is necessary to ensure compliance and standardization across the organization. This includes navigating different interpretations of regulations like HIPAA and creating a framework for reliable data exchange. Effective data governance ensures that users can manage data responsibly and ethically.

4 key strategies of interoperability

Here are four key applications to enable interoperability at scale:

1. Data normalization

Normalizing data involves standardizing how data is recorded and represented across different systems to ensure consistency and accuracy. Tools like Arcadia’s Term Mapper automate this process, significantly reducing the manual effort required to standardize data. This ensures that every piece of data is accurately aligned with the correct quality measures, providing a reliable source of truth for clinical decisions and improving patient outcomes.

2. Large language models (LLMs)

LLMs help manage and utilize vast amounts of data generated by healthcare organizations. They automate administrative tasks, reduce the burden on healthcare staff, and enhance clinical decision-making through comprehensive data analysis. Integrating LLMs into workflows helps improve data management, leading to improved operational efficiency.

3. Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)

The FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) standard facilitates quicker and more targeted use cases for interoperability. It enables healthcare providers to query and receive patient information in real-time as a patient moves from one point of care to another. This real-time data exchange supports timely and informed treatment decisions, contributing to improved patient outcomes.

4. Comprehensive patient data

Arcadia’s Desktop is a powerful tool that integrates data from multiple sources — payer data, clinical data, and government data — to provide a comprehensive 360-degree view of a patient’s health. This holistic view enhances clinical decision-making, supports personalized care plans, and improves overall patient outcomes. By presenting actionable insights at the point of care, this tool closes the loop on interoperability and supports better care coordination.

Applications of interoperability in healthcare

Interoperability in healthcare demonstrates its value through various practical applications. These use cases highlight how integrating data across systems can enhance efficiency, improve patient outcomes, and streamline care coordination.

• Reduced data reconciliation time by 50%: A large healthcare network implemented Arcadia’s Term Mapper and LLMs, enhancing their data management and patient care capabilities. Normalizing their data and utilizing advanced analytics reduced their data reconciliation time by 50%, allowing clinicians to focus more on patient care.
• Reduced hospital readmissions: This same network also used large language models to more accurately identify at-risk patients. By analyzing unstructured data from electronic health records, LLMs highlighted potential health issues early, improving patient outcomes and reducing hospital readmissions.
• Enhanced care coordination and patient satisfaction: By leveraging Arcadia’s Desktop, a healthcare system was able to integrate data from various sources. As a result, clinicians can make informed decisions and develop personalized care plans, enhancing care coordination and improving patient satisfaction.
• Improved clinical decision-making: A regional hospital had challenges with data integration from many sources. Implementing interoperability standards and Arcadia’s solutions unified their patient data across departments. This integration improved care coordination, clinical decision-making, and patient satisfaction while reducing medical errors.

Interoperability is a competitive advantage for healthcare organizations

Continued efforts toward achieving interoperability will ensure that healthcare providers have access to reliable, comprehensive data, enabling them to deliver high-quality care and drive positive health outcomes for patients. As the industry evolves, staying ahead of trends and adopting innovative solutions will be key to maintaining a competitive edge and improving the overall healthcare experience.

Watch the full webinar to learn more about interoperability and its challenges and resources. To see how Arcadia can help you achieve interoperability, book a demo.