Tech, ExplainedHealthtech and life sciences
Concept

Healthcare interoperability

Records that move between hospitals.

HOW IT WORKSHospital A holds apatient's record inits own systemAnother system asksfor the record througha standard APIHospital A's systemsends it in a sharedformat, such as FHIRStandard codes saywhat each diagnosisand test meansThe receiving systemreads it straight intoits own recordAny system that follows the standard can read another's records, with no retyping and no fax.HOW IT WORKSHospital Aholds apatient'srecord in itsown systemAnothersystem asksfor therecordthrough astandard APIHospital A'ssystem sendsit in asharedformat, suchas FHIRStandardcodes saywhat eachdiagnosis andtest meansThe receivingsystem readsit straightinto itsown recordAny system that follows the standard can read another's records, with no retyping and no fax.HOW IT WORKSHospital A holds a patient's record inits own system↓Another system asks for the recordthrough a standard API↓Hospital A's system sends it in a sharedformat, such as FHIR↓Standard codes say what each diagnosisand test means↓The receiving system reads it straightinto its own recordAny system that follows the standard can read another'srecords, with no retyping and no fax.
One system asks for a patient's record through a standard API, the other sends it in a shared format with standard codes, and the first reads it straight into its own record.
opens a page inside this one a page in the same scene a page in another scene a concept page a label only, with no page

Healthcare interoperability is the ability of different health record systems to exchange a patient's data in a shared format, so that each system can read and use what the other sends. Without it, a hospital's records reach another hospital as a printout, a PDF or a fax, and someone has to type them in again.

Here is how it works in general. A patient's record sits in one hospital's system. Another system, such as a second hospital, a lab or an app, asks for the record through an API, a set of commands through which one program asks another for data. The first system sends the data in a shared format. Today the main format is FHIR, Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, which a standards body called HL7 publishes. FHIR describes each piece of data, such as a patient, a test result or a medicine, in the same way everywhere. Standard codes then say what each item means, for example which test a result belongs to. The receiving system reads the data straight into its own record. Before any of this, both systems must agree that they are talking about the same patient. This step is called patient matching.

Why is it hard? Each hospital may have bought its record system from a different company, years apart. In America, a law now requires record systems to offer standard APIs, and forbids hospitals from blocking the exchange of data without a good reason. India's ABHA system uses FHIR for the records that it links.

Take, for example, a blood test ordered by a doctor. The laboratory information system sends the result back as a standard message, and it appears in the doctor's record without anyone typing it.

Consider a company that builds an app for patients with asthma. With FHIR APIs, the app can read the patient's medicines from any hospital record that offers the same API, instead of building a separate connection to each one.

Say a heart specialist receives a new patient on referral. Medical record retrieval fetches the old scans and letters from the other hospitals, including the ones that can still send only a fax.

How is interoperability different from a healthcare data platform? A data platform copies records from many systems into one place, to study them. Interoperability lets two systems exchange a record whenever it is needed. The idea is the same as UPI, where any bank's app can pay into any other bank's account because all of them follow one standard.

Appears in

Healthtech and life sciences
Tech, Explained is a part of ingrid.fyi. Every page explains one piece of technology in plain words.